A Man Has Died After Crashing His Car Into An 11-Foot Alligator In Florida
The creature actually totaled the man's car.
If the idea of an alligator wasn't scary enough already, it turns out they can also be a genuine danger to you even if you're in a car.
On March 24, a man in Florida died in a car accident after hitting an 11-foot alligator that was in the middle of the road.
Per the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the 59-year-old man, John Hopkins, was driving home from work in the town of Lithia, Florida, a suburb of Tampa Bay, eastbound on County Road 672 at about 12:30 a.m.
Then, less than a mile from his home, his vehicle struck an absolutely massive alligator that was unexpectedly in the middle of the road.
After hitting the amphibious reptile, he lost control of his car and swerved off the road into a ditch, flipping his vehicle in the process.
While 911 was called by a passing driver who saw the flipped car, neither Hopkins or the alligator survived the impact.
Hopkins, who had recently started a new job, will be "missed by the whole family," his sister Jane Pyzynski told Fox 13 News. She also touched on the tragedy of losing her brother in such a freak, out-of-nowhere accident.
"It's bizarre," said Pyzynski. "An 11-foot alligator is a big alligator to begin with, but then to just total the car."
"He died instantly, is what we were told," continued Hopkins' sister. "He was the apple in my mother's eye, so to speak."
The Hillsborough County Police say that the investigation into the accident is ongoing.
This alligator was just one of the millions of wild 'gators that live in the states of Florida and Louisiana, with The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission estimating that around 1.3 alligators live in Florida alone.
