Crikey! Check Out These 7 Alligator Car Accidents
Plus one crocodile car accident
Why did the gator cross the busy highway? He didn’t want to take the road less traveled on. ♫
Photo: Susan Young
With Steve Irwin’s birthday tomorrow, we remember a conservationist and wildlife enthusiast whose love for animals charmed audiences on television for many years with his crocodile documentaries.
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I remember religiously watching his “Croc Files” series on Animal Planet as a kid. While my family would have rather watched something else on TV, my curiosity kept them from surfing to the next channel. Never before had I seen our world through a beautiful, adventurous lens like the one portrayed by the Crocodile Hunter.
His sudden death on September 2006, due to a stingray incident, was a heartbreaking day for me.
Irwin’s love for reptiles and The News Wheel’s love for cars unfortunately collide at a dangerous intersection that involves traumatic injuries and tragic deaths. The following alligator car accidents are enough to make me fly an airliner when traveling south — as long as there are no snakes on the plane.
Gator loses tail in fatal accident
On May 8, 2015, the driver of a van, traveling eastbound on I-10 in New Orleans, attempted to miss a 5-foot alligator. As it veered, a Mitsubishi Eclipse rear-ended the van. One driver died, while two others received treatment at a nearby hospital. The alligator lost part of its tail and one leg, but eventually crawled back to the bayou. This mayhem closed down two lanes for three hours.
A fiery fatality
A mother and her two children died from thermal injuries in May 2018 after hitting a 9-foot alligator that was crossing I-95 N in South Carolina. In hitting the reptile, the car swerved off the left side of the road and hit a tree in the median, bursting the mother’s Kia Soul into flames.
A miraculous survival in Sarasota County
A 34-year-old mother of four children had never been in a major wreck before. South Florida attorney Jennifer Rosinski’s confrontation with a 9-foot alligator on I-75 sent her Ford Escape airborne, rolling multiple times. Rosinski survived the crash with a minor cut under one of her eyes. The alligator was not so lucky. Case closed.
Suzuki motorcyclist meets sinister alligator
Three days after Ford Escape alligator incident, a motorcyclist traveling westbound on State Route 674 in Florida hit a 10-foot, 9-inch alligator. The collision threw Calun Nelson off his Suzuki motorcycle. After a trip to the hospital in critical condition, Nelson later recovered from his injuries. Like Nelson, the gator too was in critical condition, but later “expired from injuries” as a result from the collision.
Do you even lift gator, bro?
When a car hits a 12-foot, 800-pound alligator, you are going to need bigger tools to clean up that mess. This was the scene in May 2014 when a vehicle struck a gator on Highway 64 in North Carolina inside Dare County.
Gator’s tail got run over by a trucker
Traffic diverted from a Louisiana roadway for an hour after an 18-wheeler ran over the teal of an 11-foot, 400-pound alligator. The accident was proof that losing your tail is not always a good thing. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries crews removed the gator from the scene after it was put down.
Chevy Cruze 1, alligator 0
A Chevy Cruze driver struck and killed a gator crossing Florida State Route 528 in November 2015. The driver caught the incident on camera with his dash cam. While he survived to post the video to YouTube and tell the tale, his Cruze’s intercooler and radiator needed repairs. The alligator did not survive the 70 mph hit.
Crocodile crossing sign needed
OK, this is not an alligator-related accident, but it’s worth a mention. One week before Christmas 2015, Australian police tended to a car accident involving a 5-foot crocodile that wandered from a nearby creek at high tide. While law enforcement called in a crocodile expert, the reptile did not survive.
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Have you or someone you know had a run-in with a gator or croc on the road? Share us your story in the comments section below.
Sources: Nola.com, The Palm Beach Post, Thestate.com, Fox 13, Wral.com, Knoe.com, Orlando Weekly, Abc.net
The News Wheel is a digital auto magazine providing readers with a fresh perspective on the latest car news. We’re located in the heart of America (Dayton, Ohio) and our goal is to deliver an entertaining and informative perspective on what’s trending in the automotive world. See more articles from The News Wheel.