{"id":238445,"date":"2026-04-20T03:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238445\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:15:10","slug":"woman-survives-rollover-crash-after-hitting-9-foot-gator-on-florida-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238445\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman survives rollover crash after hitting 9-foot gator on Florida road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>SARASOTA, Florida (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay28.com\/news\/local-news\/woman-survives-rollover-crash-after-hitting-9-foot-gator-on-sarasota-county-road\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WFTS<\/a>) \u2014 A Manatee County woman survived a rollover crash after hitting a nearly 9-foot alligator in Sarasota County.<\/p>\n<p>The crash happened before sunrise on Easter Sunday, around 6 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Maslin Kurtz was traveling on Fruitville Road and Cowpen Lane in a rural part of Sarasota County.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought I hit something and blew a tire, just because it ripped my car off the road,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Her Toyota 4Runner crashed into a pole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just praying that somebody would see me. Obviously, I saw lights go by, so I thought I was behind a bush or something. I didn\u2019t know where I ended up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot2026-04-17at100544AM.jpg\" class=\"fancybox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot2026-04-17at100544AM.jpg\" alt=\"Florida resident Maslin Kurtz survived a rollover crash after hitting a nearly 9-foot alligator in Sarasota County. The crash happened before sunrise on Easter Sunday.\" width=\"900\" height=\"505\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-829971\"  \/><\/a>Florida resident Maslin Kurtz survived a rollover crash after hitting a nearly 9-foot alligator in Sarasota County. The crash happened before sunrise on Easter Sunday. | WFTS via CNN   <\/p>\n<p>She said a couple had spotted her SUV, which had crashed into the pole. They called 911 for help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was crushed between the roof and the steering wheel,\u201d said Kurtz.<\/p>\n<p>Kurtz was hospitalized at Sarasota Memorial Hospital for four days. She spent two of those days in an intensive care unit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a few fractures on my spine. My sternum is fractured and then my left scapula, the shoulder blade,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She said she feels fortunate she survived the crash. She must wear a brace for four to six weeks, followed by physical therapy.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s expected to make a full recovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just grateful that I\u2019m here and I give all the glory to God,\u201d said Kurtz.<\/p>\n<p>Kurtz said the alligator did not survive, and deputies helped remove the gator from the roadway.<\/p>\n<p>A friend started a GoFundMe page to help Kurtz with her medical bills.<\/p>\n<p> \t  \t  \t  \t=htmlentities(get_the_title())?&gt;%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?&gt;%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(&#8216;For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https:\/\/www.eastidahonews.com\/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.&#8217;)?&gt;&amp;subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews&#8221; class=&#8221;fa-stack jDialog&#8221;&gt;  \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Florida (WFTS) \u2014 A Manatee County woman survived a rollover crash after hitting a nearly 9-foot alligator&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-238445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238445","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=238445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}