Florida’s beaches are where you go to lie your head on pillowy sands to soak in some rays and develop a nice, even tan across your face. Unfortunately, two separate people on two different occasions in the past year did that exact thing when they were run over by cars.
Cars aren’t allowed on public beaches across most of Florida, with Volusia County being an exception. That’s where you’ll find Daytona Beach and Smyrna Beach, a pair of popular tourist destinations.
It just so happened that Volusia County is where both incidents of someone getting steamrolled while chilling on the beach happened. Coincidence? Nope. There’s actually a rich history of people getting run over by cars on Volusia County beaches.
Recently, a 33-year-old man from Ocala, Florida, was relaxing on the Lussier County Ormond Beach when he was run over by a Jeep that was trying to back into a parking space. The poor guy was lying face down, drifting off into a pleasant sun-soaked nap when the Jeep ran over his head.
He somehow managed to walk away with only a few broken bones, including a broken femur. Miraculously, his head did not get popped like a grape.
“I was just screaming,” is an actual quote from the man. “Screaming my head off, screaming bloody murder, of course.”
Of course.
People Keep Getting Run Over by Cars on Florida Beaches
Back in February, a senior citizen relaxing on Daytona Beach also had her head ran over by a pickup truck being driven by an even older senior citizen who had no idea that she had run over anybody’s head.
Incidents like these don’t happen that often on Volusia County beaches. But they happen often enough to warrant at least a little discussion about whether cars should be allowed on public beaches that have a history of people getting run over by said cars.
In the past 15 years, Volusia has racked up 49 reported vehicular maulings on its beaches. Kids have been killed, sunbathers smashed, and in one incident, a beach safety officer ran over two teens after failing to check his surroundings before driving away.
The area has speed limits, fees, and signs, but it seems like a good example of how rules, regulations, and punishments are more of a Band-Aid and allow city officials to ignore the fact that a ban is probably necessary.
Tracking of these sandy hit-and-runs is also basically nonexistent, because beach crashes don’t make it into national vehicle accident databases. So not only are we letting people off-road around families and turtles, we’re also not even counting the carnage, probably because keeping track of it would force people to reckon with the problem nobody wants to try to solve.
With people’s heads having already been run over on Volusia County beaches, this is starting to feel like a Rule of Threes situation. Anyone visiting a beach in Volusia County this summer should keep their head on a swivel lest their head get pinned into the sand by a Cybertruck’s rear tires.
The post Florida Sunbathers Keep Getting Run Over by Cars on the Beach appeared first on VICE.
