The SUV Meance

Here's another reason to hate SUVs. Apparently a 52-year-old woman in Ormond Beach, Fla., was run over by an SUV while sunbathing in a folding chair. The driver, a 30-year-old woman, backed into Glenda Willits while she slept in her chair; she apparently did not see Ms. Willits because the sun was in her eyes. This actually happened on the beach itself; in Florida, some seaside towns allow motor vehicles on the beaches, which is probably one of the most asinine ideas of all time. I ought to know; when I was ten, my father took me to Jacksonville, and I remember the cars going slowly up and down the shoreline. I literally had to look both ways before crossing the beach to get to the water. Not coincidentally, I hated Jacksonville's beaches.

SUVs are already a menace on the road, and while ordinary passenger cars on Florida's beaches are bad enough, whose bright idea was it to let these dangerous behemoths onto the sand? If you live in Florida and own an SUV, maybe you should park it at the beach entrance and walk the rest of the way.