So Volusia County is planning to make traffic one-way on Daytona's beach. Great, that just means even more traffic coming to New Smyrna Beach.
I found it rather humorous that the story in today's Daytona Beach News-Journal described the news as coming out of a Volusia County Council workshop yet the only official quoted is none other than County Manager Jim Dinneen. No quotes from any of the County Council members. Hmm.
So get this: The county brain trusts are including smartphone "apps" in their proposal to let people know where the hot spots are. So they don't want people texting while driving, but it's OK for them to look at their apps?
And of all the citizens to be quoted, the News-Journal chooses a resident of DeLeon Springs?
"It's just an outmoded custom," DeLeon Springs resident Elizabeth Layton is quoted as saying of Volusia's long beach-driving tradition. "It's a bad habit that y'all need to get over."
From what I gathered reading the News-Journal story, the DeLeon Springs resident was the transition voice need to put in the plug on how dangerous the beach is with two 4-year-olds killed on the beach in 2010.
Nobody who lives in East Volusia had anything worth quoting from the workshop meeting? Heck, I didn't even know there was a meeting and I'll bet you the reader didn't know either. But county leaders like seeing their names in print, except the elected ones unless the stories make them look good. When it's not so good, they can hide behind Dinneen and to a lesser extent, County Attorney Dan Eckert. After all, they make the big bucks.
You may ask yourself what kind of a reporter can I be when I'm not even aware a 3 p.m. Wednesday workshop was being held at lifeguard headquarters next to SunSplash Park. I do know a thing or two about the beach from my 8 1/2 years with the Daytona paper where drownings were a regular part of my breaking news responsibilities. And I've covered the beach in the last four years with this online newspaper.
From 1996 through 2004, when I was a reporter with the News-Journal, no children or adults were killed by motor vehicles. And other than the two deaths in 2010, I haven't had to write about any others. I can tell you that with the possible exception of WESH TV's Claire Metz, I've covered more motor-vehicle related fatalities than any other reporter in the last 15 years here in Volusia County.
The beach is actually safer than many of county's roadways. A 43-year-old motor scooter rider was killed Wednesday morning in Daytona Beach when a motorist turned in front of him. Maybe they should ban scooters or make driving one-way.
Maybe the Volusia County Council should ban driving while kids are walking to school. After all, 17 children have been hit by motor vehicles so far this school year; two of them killed.
Then again, maybe the County Council should ban citizens from having swimming pools. After all, eight, count 'em, eight children under the age of 4 have drowned in them in 2011.
Now back to the issue of beach driving safety, mainly the two 4-year-olds killed. There is no mention made in today's News-Journal stories as to how they were killed. I can summarize in one sentence why they were killed: They weren't being watched by their own parents!
Let's be real about this. A little girl visiting here from England broke free from a relative and ran in front of a car. A little boy was left on a blanket by his father who turned his back -- walking down to the surf to wash his hands and a knife off from watermelon he cut up. His son ran after him and you know the rest: Struck and killed.
Why let details like this ruin a good P.R. story for the County Council, right?
Here's a line from the story in the News-Journal from the workshop that read: "One suggested using the county's trolleys to bus people onto the beach."
What the reporter may not know, but certainly some of his editors, was that the county did just that when they banned motor vehicles from the core tourist area of the beach behind the OceanWalk development in the late 1990s. That's what led to the parking garage being built. But beach safety was not the reason; it was the county's elected officials selling out to the condo developers.
The trolley was a joke. I used to take my son for rides on it when he as little (he's now 18) on Friday nights as a father-son thing. After all, it was free.
Dinnen is quoted in today's News-Journal story as saying: ""I will tell you that while we label this as beach safety, this, to us, is not just about beach safety. It's about the modernization and evolution of beach services."
Translation? That means staving off lawsuits by not having underage teens (girls) rescuing swimmers.
The newspaper article stated: "Some suggested scaling back the Beach Patrol's law-enforcement role -- the officers carry guns and badges in addition to lifeguarding."
Yeah, how about their pants? After all, the county is dealing with the embarrassment of a least one lawsuit that alleged a minor female was a sex kitten to much older male lifeguards.
The sad reality is these new ideas, including closing certain rarmps except to locals, are only going to create more chaos and a bureaucratic mess.
This is yet another example of why less government is better.
Had the county not wasted tens of millions of dollars on pet projects like the News Journal Center, they would have had enough money to acquire off-beach parking.
Let's face it. We only have two things going for us in Volusia County: the beach and the Daytona 500. Remember folks, it's election year.
Editor's Note: Here is a link to the News-Journal story on beach driving: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2012/02/23/vo…
