Beach driving under fire following death - News

Beach driving under fire following death - News

Beach driving under fire following death
Issue tied to county charter, beach parking
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER, Staff Writer

The death of a 4-year-old boy on a Volusia County beach -- the second traffic fatality involving a child on the beach in four months -- has prompted a majority of County Council members to call for quick action to reconsider the safety of beach driving.

Council members on Monday raised options ranging from putting the question to voters this fall, commissioning an independent study to look at ways to make the beach safer or adopting a phased-in plan to end beach driving. A majority said they would support a plan to create more car-free zones.

A vote could come as early as Thursday, during the council's regular meeting.

Aiden Patrick died Sunday after he dashed toward the water near the Crawford Road beach approach in New Smyrna Beach and was run over by a truck driven by Donovan Sias, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The boy was pronounced dead at Bert Fish Medical Center shortly after the 3:18 p.m. accident, according to the FHP.

The boy's parents, Jason and Portia Patrick, live in Deltona, said Fred Lupo, president of Freedom Fire Protection in Sanford, where Jason Patrick is employed. The company set up a trust fund for the family Monday.

The highway patrol's investigation is ongoing, said spokesman Sgt. Kim Montes.

"At this point we don't believe the vehicle was speeding and we don't believe there was any impairment," Montes said Monday. Sias' truck was towed as a normal part of the investigation, "to make sure the truck is in compliance."

According to county records, Sias, 33, New Smyrna Beach, has been cited for traffic infractions 34 times since 1994, including eight for failure to obey a traffic control device, one for speeding and one for careless driving.

The FHP also continues to investigate the death of Ellie Bland, 4, on Daytona Beach in March, Montes said. Witnesses said the little English girl was crossing busy traffic lanes when she was struck by a vehicle driven by a Georgia woman. Her death was the first traffic fatality on a Volusia County beach since 1996.

Two other beachgoers also have been struck by vehicles this year. News-Journal records indicate several pedestrians are injured each year, including six in 2009.

"It's just heartbreaking," Councilman Carl Persis said Monday. "Why couldn't we create more no-auto zones on the beach so people with small children would have more opportunities to go to areas where they wouldn't have to worry about their child being hit by a car or a truck?"

"That's the pitch I keep bringing up to the council. So far it hasn't come up with a lot of traction," Persis said. "How many more 4-year-old kids have to be killed before it gets traction?"

"To act like we don't have a problem or to act like it's so complicated we can't study the issue is just sticking your head in the sand."

County officials long have insisted the council can't vote to take cars off the beach because the county charter, adopted in 1986, guarantees the public the right to drive on the beach.

Any move to take cars off the beach would require that the county guarantee adequate off-beach parking for all those who wish to visit the beach, county officials said.

"I don't think we can do it tomorrow, as much as I would like to," said Councilwoman Patricia Northey. However, she said, the council could adopt a three-to-five year plan to provide more parking and access and "take cars off the beach."

Northey said the county doesn't need to hire a consultant for a new study. She said a similar plan "shelved" 10 years ago could be updated and used.

Several council members said they would support putting a referendum on the ballot for the November general election.

That would require a two-thirds majority of the council, said County Attorney Dan Eckert, with the window for doing so closing quickly.

Beach driving is almost as old as Volusia County, with historic photos showing horse and buggies on the beach even before the automobile was invented. But not all sections of the beach are open to driving. Of 40 miles of beach, driving is allowed today on about 17 miles.

Among the individuals calling on Volusia County to move quickly is Louis Celenza.

Celenza, who owns a home just a few houses south of Sunday's incident, wrangled with the county for years over beach driving before finally losing his lawsuit in March. A circuit judge ruled a custom had been established for beach driving on property just north of the Crawford approach.

At the time, Celenza called the situation on the beach a "dangerous mix" of vehicles, children and people.

The county "can't just keep paying blood money to families and hope it won't happen again," Celenza said Monday. "If they can't control it and prevent things like this, they should do away with it."

Like the council members, beachgoers near the site of the little boy's death on Monday had mixed reactions.

Jason Schrieber, 32, visiting from Ohio with his wife and three small children, said he would prefer less or no traffic.

But as an alternative Schreiber said an increase in Beach Patrol presence during busy days like Sunday "would be safer."

Bob Miller, 51, of New Smyrna Beach said he has no problem with cars on the beach.

"I think the accident was a fluke," he said as he watched his wife and 5-year-old daughter head to the water. "I (or my wife) keeps her within arms reach."



A trust fund for Aiden Patrick's family has been established at BankFIRST, 800-669-8701, account number 100037308.

-- Staff Writer Mark I. Johnson contributed to this report.


Ten beachgoers have been hit by vehicles in eight incidents in Volusia County since March 2009.


SUNDAY: Aiden Patrick, 4, is run over and killed near the Crawford Avenue beach approach in New Smyrna Beach.

JUNE 9: Carole Nadeau Dalton is run over near Daytona Beach's Lenox Avenue approach by a pickup driven by a Beach Patrol officer. She underwent surgery for a fractured leg.

APRIL 3: Angela Samala of Orlando is run over by a motorist on northern New Smyrna Beach while lying on the sand between vehicles in the parking lane in violation of county code.

MARCH 20: Ellie Bland, a 4-year-old British girl vacationing in Daytona Beach, is struck and killed by a car as she walked toward the ocean near SunSplash Park, holding hands with her great-uncle.

MARCH 30, 2009: New Mexico residents David and Julie Waschezyn, in lounge chairs lying face down, are hit by a golf cart in Daytona Beach Shores. A 22-year-old Canadian tourist carrying two passengers on the cart made a U-turn and plowed over the couple's legs.

MARCH 15, 2009: Matthew David Keaffaber is run over by a pickup on Daytona Beach but walked away unscathed after an 18-year-old driver ventured illegally into a beach conservation zone about two blocks north of Seabreeze Boulevard.

MARCH 10, 2009: The Collins family of Newnan, Ga., is hit by a golf cart driven by 17-year-old Michael Gregory Walters of Ocoee on Daytona Beach. Don Collins was left with tire marks on his back and waist.

MARCH 8, 2009: Two teenage girls lying on the sand at the 3700 block of Ocean Beach Drive in Daytona Beach Shores are run over by a 37-year-old man in a pickup who wanted to change parking spaces so he could be closer to friends.




What the Volusia County Charter says

The Charter's Section 205, Unified Countywide Beach Regulations, spells out:

BEACH ACCESS

The public has a right to access beaches and a right to use the beaches for recreation and other customary purposes.

· "This right of access and use is a public trust, which the council shall by ordinance define, protect, and enforce. Because prohibiting motor vehicle access to the beaches would deny beach use to many, the council shall authorize, as permitted by law, vehicular access to any part of the beach not reasonably accessible from public parking facilities."

UNIFIED BEACH CODE

The county shall regulate public health, safety and welfare on the beach. This can include individual conduct, pedestrian safety, vehicular access and fees, operation and parking of vehicles on beaches and approaches; and vendors, concessionaires, and special events.


Beach by the numbers

919,652: Vehicles that drove onto Volusia beaches between February and November 2009.

$2.7 million: Money collected in beach tolls during the same time frame.