A motorcyclist flipped over his handlebars and another flew off her bike after an alligator on the highway caught them off guard near Orange City, Florida.

Cameron Gilmore, 67, was riding along Interstate 4 with about 30 or 40 bikers when he struck the reptile at full speed, WTAE-TV reported Wednesday.

“I saw it, like, 10 feet in front of me, and I just, you know, I thought — I knew I was going to hit it,” Gilmore said about the May 31 accident. “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. And I just had to hold on.”

Another rider’s camera footage captured the alligator, which appeared to be injured, lying motionless on the road as the bikers dodged around it.

“Thank God it wasn’t crossways — horizontal — because I would have hit the belly. Bunch of us would have hit it,” Gilmore told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Alligator on I-4 causes motorcyclists to crash: ‘I flipped over the handlebars’ https://t.co/i8bNYm79Pj pic.twitter.com/ELn51fxMEu

— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) June 3, 2025

“One of the riders in front of me said he, 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,” Gilmore said.

“They said — somebody said two or three rolls on, you know, head-first, and then I start sliding for a long ways.”

The camera footage later showed the other motorcyclists running toward Gilmore after he crashed.

“My right leg was real numb and hurt,” Gilmore said.

Gilmore arrived at the hospital shortly after with broken bones and fractures.

Brandi Gross, who was riding behind Gilmore on her Kawasaki Ninja 650, said the gator blended in with the road.

“I looked to my left so I could try to get over into the fast lane to check my blind spot. And then I started to merge over,” Gross, 25, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

“I looked back in front of me, and the gator was just right there. There was nothing I could do. I just, unfortunately, I hit him, and I felt like I smacked into a brick wall.”

“I pretty much said like, ‘Oh crap,’” she added.

Gross suffered a concussion, road rash, bruising, and a cracked wrist.

Although the two were riding with a group, they met for the first time at the hospital.

This was Gilmore’s second crash.

He plans on riding as soon as he recovers, but a third crash would make him reconsider.

“I’m a Christian man,” Gilmore said. “And God’s probably already given me a couple signs.”

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.