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A Florida man died after crashing his automotive into a large 11-foot alligator in a roadway early Thursday, authorities mentioned.
John Hopkins, 59, was driving eastbound on County Road 672 in Lithia at about 12:30 a.m. when his automobile plowed into the large reptile in the course of the street, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Hopkins’ automotive veered off the street and overturned in a close-by ditch. A passing motorist noticed the wreck and referred to as 911, sheriff’s spokesman Marco Villarreal informed The Post.
Responding deputies pronounced Hopkins lifeless on the scene. The 11-foot alligator additionally died within the wild wreck, sheriff’s officers mentioned.
An investigation is ongoing and officers might launch footage of deputies as they arrived on the crash website, Villarreal mentioned.
Hopkins lived in Lithia, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Attempts to succeed in Hopkins’ kin weren’t instantly profitable. A Facebook page identified him as a Tennessee native and an info expertise supervisor for the US Census Bureau.
Villarreal mentioned it’s unclear the place the alligator got here from, however the crash website is about 2 miles west of 6,312-acre Alafia River State Park, the place the apex predators are identified to roam, the Miami Herald reported.
Florida has an estimated 1.3 million alligators that may be present in all of its 67 counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The longest gator ever recorded within the state was 14 ft, 3 1/2 inches, whereas the document weight is 1,043 kilos, the state company mentioned.
