County assesses impact of weekend truck event

Posted On: September 8, 2020

County officials were busy Tuesday assessing the impacts of last weekend’s event that drew thousands of truck enthusiasts to Volusia County.

Billed as the world’s largest lift truck show, the Daytona Truck Meet roared into town on Friday for a 3-day run. Now in its fourth year, the Volusia County Council and county government had no role in issuing permits or sanctioning the event. But its impacts were felt by the county, most notably with added traffic on the beach in what was already a busy holiday weekend.

“While we had to deal with some of the impacts, the Truck Meet wasn’t sanctioned, supported or promoted by the County Council or county in any way,” said County Chair Ed Kelley. “This was all done privately. The county had no role in facilitating the event and has no say in when or whether it happens.”

Officials indicated that litter and trash were pretty typical for a holiday weekend and there were no reports of any sea turtle nests being directly impacted by vehicles. Still, the county’s Beach Safety and Coastal divisions were busy throughout the weekend dealing with all of the added visitors and vehicles. There were significant traffic backups leading to the beach at some of the vehicle approaches, partly the result of the reduced parking capacity because of the COVID-19 social distancing policies as well as a mid-day high tide. Beach Safety officers also noted an increase in careless driving and alcohol use, issuing 47 traffic citations, 59 parking tickets and 36 notices to appear in court over the weekend. There also were complaints about trucks causing large divots in the sand from doing spinouts on the beach. The county ended up closing down some of the beachfront parks to traffic in order to clear out parking lots that had been turned into party gathering spots. Some of the upland agencies assisted in the effort.

Kelley expressed displeasure that the influx of trucks resulted in some noisy and rowdy behavior.

“We were disappointed with the actions that disrupted what should have been a nice family day on the beach,” said Kelley.