Does it say how this happened? I imagine the snake crawled up on top of the engine to get warm, then the owner of the car started it up. Then snake frappe.
Same thing happened to an old neighbor of mine. She had one those remote control car starters attached to her car alarm button. One morning she started her car with a cat resting on the engine. Since the cat didn't hear her open her car door, it didn't run off. The cat ran off when the engine started though, after making the loudest cat scream I have ever heard, but without half of it's tail.