DAYTONA BEACH -- Two young girls standing just outside the beach traffic lanes Saturday waited carefully and attentively until the driver, his window down and headlights on, waved them across.
The 10-year-old and her friend dashed over to the ocean on the first day of a Labor Day weekend that was especially bright for Volusia County officials, and not just because of the flawless beach weather.
The beach isn't having the same high-profile accidents it saw in 2010, when two children were killed, and 2011, when a vacationer went on the Today Show with her injuries.
"We implemented a lot of changes to make sure we've got the world's safest beach at the same time as being the World's Most Famous Beach," County Chair Frank Bruno said Saturday, the opening afternoon of the holiday that typically brings thousands of people out to the water.
"I'm very proud of the people that work down there on the beach," Bruno said. "We want to make sure it's safe for our residents and our visitors alike."
2012 has been a relatively safe year on Volusia's 47 miles of beach -- 17 of which allow driving. Beach Patrol Capt. Tammy Marris said no serious vehicle-vs.-pedestrian accidents have been reported all year.
Aside from a minor incident in July, when a 16-year-old sunbather was clipped in the shoulder by a pickup truck backing out of a parking spot, beachgoers and the drivers taking advantage of this area's rare beach-driving permit have coexisted without much incident.
"Everything's been pretty good this year as far as safety," Marris said. "The stuff that Volusia County has put into effect, it's clearly made a difference in visibility in certain core areas where, in the past, it's been very busy."
The county made a long list of changes over the past year: The County Council passed a new ordinance requiring drivers to roll down a window, turn on headlights and stop texting while driving. The county also created new one-way driving zones, which discouraged cruising and made it easier for people to cross the lane.
On the beach Saturday, visitor Mariann Haring, who was watching four kids play nearby, said she was glad for the one-way zones. But she also never felt unsafe coming to Daytona Beach, a feeling shared by many who've been coming to this area for years without incident. Until 2010, no one had been killed in an accident on the beach in 14 years.
"I never really felt uncomfortable, to be honest, unless you had the teenagers who would zoom past you," Haring said.
The county's focus on safety sharpened after the deaths of 4-year-olds Ellie Bland in March 2010 and Aiden Patrick in July 2010. While both of those accidents involved private vehicles, the Patrick family is also involved in litigation against the county. The wrongful-death lawsuit claims county officials should have known the beaches were too dangerous. The county has filed a series of recent motions to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, the Beach Patrol has been reinventing its vehicle fleet, which had simultaneously become an unwilling symbol of accidental run-ins with sunbathers.
Last year, Beach Patrol pickups making U-turns ran over two women lying in the sun -- one's arm, the other's head. The second woman, Erin Joynt of Kansas, eventually appeared on the Today Show after she left the hospital, and she remains involved in a lawsuit against the county. Her attorney, John Phillips, said depositions will be happening this fall.
Those U-turn accidents followed a similar case in 2010: Carole Dalton, whose leg was broken when a Beach Patrol truck ran her over in her chair. She recently agreed to a $120,000 settlement that the county's expected to approve this week.
Similar accidents, all involving Beach Patrol trucks, none fatal, happened in 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Today, the Ford F-150s are still out on the beach, but they're outfitted with cameras designed to eliminate blind spots. Marris said the cameras are "just phenomenal. I actually want one in my personal vehicle now. You can see everything."
The county has also expressed plans to phase out the big pickups for smaller vehicles, but that process is moving slowly. The Beach Patrol now has three utility task vehicles -- open-air Polaris models with large safety bumpers -- and one red GMC Canyon, a smaller truck that could become more common in the agency. A plan to buy two Jeep Wranglers has been delayed.
SPECIAL REPORT: Beach Driving
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