Two motorcyclists hit a 6-foot alligator in the middle of one of Florida’s busiest highways, sending both bikers to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
On Saturday, Cameron Gilmore, 67, and 25-year-old woman were riding in a group of motorcyclists on Interstate 4 heading to Sanford when they struck the alligator near Orange City, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Tara Crescenzi said Monday in an email.
“I saw it, like, ten feet in front of me, and I just, you know, I thought — I knew I was going to hit. It kind of just happened so quick. I didn’t even have a second to do anything, couldn’t put on the brakes or nothing. I just had to hold on,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said he flew off his bike after hitting the gator.
“One of the riders in front of me said he went by the gator, looked in his mirror, saw me hit it, and I flipped over the handlebars and landed on my head on I-4 and rolled. They said, somebody said 2 or 3 rolls, you know head first, and then, I start sliding for a long ways,” he said.
One woman’s dashcam captured person lying in the middle of the road and another off to the side. Both riders were taken to a nearby hospital Crescenzi said.
Gilmore suffered road rash and some broken bones in a foot. The FHP did not release information on the woman’s injury.
Orange City is about 30 miles northeast of Orlando, and the speed limit on that stretch of highway is 60 mph.
Florida wildlife officers were called to trap the injured alligator. A spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Monday didn’t respond to an inquiry seeking information about the gator’s condition.
Alligators are found in all of Florida’s 67 counties, and the state’s population numbers around 1.3 million. Despite those numbers, injuries from alligators are rare, according to the Florida wildlife commission.
