SARASOTA, Fla. (WFTS) \u2013 A Florida woman spent days in the hospital after a rollover accident.<\/p>\n
Maslin Kurtz is healing now, but she said she will never forget the crash and its cause, which was a huge alligator.<\/p>\n
Kurtz said her Toyota 4Runner rolled several times before crashing into a pole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I hit something and blew a tire just because it ripped my car off of the road,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old hit a nearly 9-foot alligator in the road before sunrise on Easter morning.<\/p>\n
The reptile did not survive the crash.<\/p>\n
The crash happened in rural Sarasota County on Fruitvale Road near Cowpen Lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just praying that somebody would see me, and obviously I saw lights go by, and so I thought I was behind a bush or something. I didn\u2019t know where I had ended up,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n
According to Kurtz, a couple came to her rescue, calling 911. She remembered them helping her out of her SUV after she became trapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember being stuck in my car. I was crushed between the roof and the steering wheel,\u201d Kurtz said. \u201cI\u2019m just kind of stuck there, not sure what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kurtz spent four days hospitalized at Sarasota Memorial, including two days in the ICU.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a few fractures on my spine. My sternum is fractured and then my left scapula, so the shoulder blade,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n
Kurtz said she feels fortunate she survived such a traumatic crash.<\/p>\n
Her home is now decorated with balloons and cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a sweet little gator that the couple who pulled me out of the car actually brought me. They came to visit me a few days after I got out of the hospital, so I thought that was really sweet,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n
Kurtz must wear a brace for up to six weeks followed by physical therapy, but she\u2019s expected to make a full recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful that I\u2019m here and I give all the glory to God,\u201d Kurtz said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WFTS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WFTS) \u2013 A Florida woman spent days in the hospital after a rollover accident. Maslin Kurtz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7863,7903,1776,28,30,29,4134,413,135],"class_list":["post-236754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligator","tag-county","tag-crash","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-manatee","tag-sarasota","tag-tampa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}