DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A beach patrol officer who drove over a sunbather as she lay in sand will be ticketed for careless driving and fined $115, officials said.
Officer Robert Augustynowski, 43, drove his pickup truck diagonally across Danielle Taylor as she sunbathed Monday near the Main Street Pier. The Volusia County officer was driving at about 2 1/2 mph, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Taylor, 20, of Fort Stewart, Ga., was taken to Halifax Medical Center. Hospital officials would not give details Tuesday, but Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn said Taylor was "awake and alert and talking" after the accident.
"Two of the tires rolled over her shoulder and her hip," patrol spokeswoman Kim Miller said.
Last August, a beach patrol officer drove over a 25-year-old woman who was sunbathing on a lounge chair, causing cuts and bruises. In February 2003, a Miami Beach police officer searching for two robbery suspects drove over two sunbathing sisters in his marked police vehicle, killing one and critically injuring the other.
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