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A Florida driver was killed after he struck an 11-foot alligator that was sitting in the middle of the road. John Hopkins, 59, was less than a mile from his home in Lithia when he slammed into the alligator around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday (March 24).
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said that Hopkins' car veered off the road and overturned before landing in a ditch near the entrance to a landfill. A passing motorist saw his vehicle and called 911.
By the time officers arrived at the scene, Hopkins had already died. The alligator was also killed in the crash.
Hopkins' family said that he had recently started a new job and was returning home from work when he crashed.
"It's bizarre that [it was] an 11-foot alligator, [which] is a big alligator, to begin with, but then to just total the car...he hit an alligator and flipped the car, and he died instantly is what we were told," Hopkins' sister, Jane Pyzynski, told WTVT. "He was the apple in my mother's eye, so to speak. He'll be missed by the whole family."
While officials don't know where the alligator came from, the Miami Herald reported that a large number of alligators reside at the 6,300 acre Alafia River State Park, which is about two miles away from the crash site.