A Florida man was arrested Tuesday morning after he drove through a closed beach and into the ocean in Volusia County.

According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, shortly before 9 a.m., deputies were called to New Smyrna Beach after a vehicle drove around a closed gate and accessed the beach without paying the toll fee.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      well, usually, it’s the tide. People either forget to check where the tide is, forget when the tide starts coming in, or loose track of time. they go out on the flats during low tide, set up their party, maybe get a little drunk.

      Maybe whatever they’re driving was never meant to go on sand. maybe they don’t know how to drive on sand and get stuck.

      and maybe it’s not a problem exclusive to “US citizens”… (it happens everywhere there’s a beach.)

      • intelisense@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        But why drive onto the flats in the first place? Here we park up and walk to the beach. Pretty sure it’s illegal to drive on the beach too…

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          Depends on the beach, if it’s illegal or not. Swimming places, definitely not.

          As for why do it? Off road driving is fun, your car can provide electrical power for things like speakers, lights, and stuff, carry firewood, coolers (full of food. And booze,); sand toys, chairs, towels… elderly family that can’t walk, clamming or fishing gear; kites or surfboards or whatever else…. and to get out to a place away from crowds.

          At the places people go swimming, it’s generally not allowed, sure, and same for private beaches. But there’s plenty of public beachfront that isn’t your sandy swimming spot

        • ta_leadran_orm@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          9 months ago

          A local beach near me in Ireland has people parking exclusively on the beach, that said, it’s a massive breach with plenty of space.

          I never have heard of anyone’s car getting overtaken by the tide, but perhaps the local farmer has pulled a few people out

          Another local beach is as you described, no parking on the beach, walk on only. I think it depends on the kind of beach and the way things are set up

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            Around here they quite often like to drive their cars into obviously flooded roads, that’s always a good laugh. But they tend not to drive them on to beaches.

        • limelight79@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          Check out the town of Carova Beach, North Carolina. Accessible only by driving on the beach or by water.

          There’s A Facebook page dedicated to taking pictures of people getting stuck. Apparently all you have to do is air down your tires to like 12 psi and keep to a reasonable speed, but a lot of people think their car, truck, or SUV can handle sand without those precautions.

  • ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    We’re all being so harsh with him. How could he have known beforehand that his truck is not a surf board?

    People need to be free to experience and innovate! If it had turned out it could surf, he’d deserve the Noble prize! Sheesh!

    (/s and also, intentional misspelling)

    • psud@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      His crime wasn’t driving into the sea, it was driving on a closed beach

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    a vehicle drove around a closed gate

    I don’t think the Floridians quite understand how gates are supposed to work, if you can drive around it, then it’s not really a gate. More a very small and ineffective fence

  • Radical Dog@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    9 months ago

    Just an observation, but if it was a Tesla, the brand would be in the headline. Media is weird.

    • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 months ago

      Pointing this out only excerbates the problem and continues to keep that brand salient (present) in your mind, which is the main goal of modern advertising.

      The best thing you can do is not talk about that brand unless it is especially relevant.