Alligator crawls onto busy interstate and puts 2 bikers in hospital, FL cops say
.jpg "An alligator put two bikers in the hospital when it crawled onto traffic on Interstate 4 near Orange City, Florida, the Florida Highway Patrol says. This is not the same alligator.")
A 6-foot alligator became a potentially fatal speed bump when it crawled onto a busy Florida interstate — directly into the path of two motorcycles, according to investigators.
The bikers struck the alligator in rapid succession, resulting in two crashes, the Florida Highway Patrol reports.
The incident happened just after 6 p.m. Saturday, May 31, on Interstate 4 near Orange City, about a 30-mile drive northeast from Orlando. Speed limits in the area are around 60 mph.
“Both (were) traveling westbound on I-4 in the inside lane when they struck an alligator that was within the lane,” the highway patrol reports. “This impact caused (the motorcycles) to veer off the roadway.”
One of the motorcycles, driven by a 67-year-old man from DeLeon Springs, “entered the woodline and struck a tree,” investigators said. He was identified as Cameron Gilmore by WKMG, which reports Gilmore “suffered road rash and some broken bones in his foot” after colliding with the tree.
“I’m blessed, I was protected,” Gilmore told WKMG. “I just remember one of my friends swerving, and I’m looking at him swerving, and the gator’s like 10 feet in front of me.”
The other biker was a 25-year-old woman from Orange City, and investigators did not release details of how her motorcycle came to a stop.
Both were were taken to HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford “with non-life-threatening injuries,” officials said. Their identities were not released.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent a licensed trapper to remove the injured alligator, officials said. Details of its injuries were not released, and FWC officials said the trapper was left to decide its fate.
Alligators are native to all 67 counties in Florida, and June is when mating occurs, the FWC says. It’s a time when males are known to wander in search of females, which occasionally sends them across busy roads.
This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Alligator crawls onto busy interstate and puts 2 bikers in hospital, FL cops say."