Camel leaps in front of Bavarian bus and ends driver's 20-year accident-free run

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Gabriel C. (61) fährt einen Linienbus durch Bayern. Besondere Vorkommnisse gibt es dabei eher selten...Foto: Theo Klein/BILD Foto: Theo Klein/BILD

Lugiano Kaiser (17), ältester Sohn des Familienunternehmens „Cirkus King“, an der Unfallstelle mit Unfallverursacherin Zafira (18)Foto: Theo Klein/BILD Foto: Theo Klein/BILD

Zafira (18) ist einer der Stars im kleinen Zirkus. Er gastiert ab 18. Dezember mit seinem Weihnachtszirkus in TraunreutFoto: Theo Klein/BILD Foto: Theo Klein/BILD

Nach dem Kamel-Einschlag: Der rechte Außenspiegel ist kaputt, die Scheibe unter dem Spiegel gebrochenFoto: Privat Foto: Privat

Auf den Schreck füttert Lugiano Kaiser seine Zafira mit Karotten. „Sie ist ein echter Dickschädel – zum Glück“Foto: Theo Klein/BILD Foto: Theo Klein/BILD

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When the control centre asked Gabriel C. what had happened, the 61-year-old bus driver struggled to make himself believed. "I hit... a camel," he answered. There was a silence, then the reply: "You did what, please?"

Gabriel has driven buses for twenty years without an accident, the last two in the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim, and his working habit is to watch the blind spots for cyclists and pedestrians. One recent morning, around 7:50, he was on the state road between Rosenheim and Aschau with his ten-ton bus. Entering Riedering, he saw camels and an unsupervised dog on the left side of the road. Then a camel leapt from behind a trailer directly in front of the bus.

There was a dull bang; the windscreen and the right exterior mirror broke. Gabriel estimates the damage at around 4,500 euros. None of the five passengers was injured, and the camel appeared unharmed.

Zafira is an 18-year-old Mongolian steppe camel, lead mare of the five camels belonging to the family circus Cirkus King, which was camped on a meadow beside the road. Circus director Artur Kaiser, 36, says camels are flight animals and that a strange dog frightened the herd; Zafira broke through the electric fence in panic. A vet called to the scene could find no injury. Zafira, bottle-raised by the Kaiser family from a foal, ate carrots immediately after the collision — her favourite, according to 17-year-old Lugiano Kaiser, who calls her "a real thickhead — fortunately". The circus's camels only walk through the ring and perform no tricks; Cirkus King opens its Christmas circus in Traunreut on December 18.

Wherever Gabriel now meets colleagues, they grin. His nickname, after the famous figure from the cigarette advertisement, is Camel-Man.