Driver Hits 10-Foot, 300-Pound Alligator On Texas Highway

You never know what you'll find on a Texas highway.

A motorist hit a 10-foot-long, 300-pound alligator while driving on Texas 99 in Montgomery County, which is north of Houston.

The driver likely didn't see the gator as it attempted to cross the San Jacinto River around 3 a.m. on Thursday, the Houston Chronicle reported. The driver was going 70 MPH when he hit the reptile, which got lodged under his vehicle.

The man dragged the gator for nearly a mile before stopping.

The gator didn't survive the ordeal. The driver was OK, but the crash damaged his vehicle's front bumper.

Authorities who responded to the crash loaded the dead gator on a flatbed truck. A county game warden decided to return the dead gator to the San Jacinto River.

Alligators are native to Texas waterways, but tend to live quiet lives away from humans. Recently, gators were sighted on a Houston freeway and living in a grassy marsh in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb.

Montgomery County game warden Brannon Meinkowsky suspects Texans have been seeing more gators because of human population growth and development.

"Areas that used to be in the middle of the woods are now parks and subdivisions. So I think the numbers have increased, but also their wooded areas or secluded areas have decreased," Meinkowsky told the Chronicle.

Photo: Montgomery County Sheriff's Office