We were just trying to turn around,” Sarah Ramsammy told officers at the scene
A woman in Florida was arrested on Saturday after allegedly driving her blue SUV onto a beach at Smyrna Dunes Park while drunk, nearly hitting beachgoers as she sped through the sand.
Sarah Ramsammy, 26, of Orlando, was charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving and failure to obey a traffic control device, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said in a release, alleging that Ramsammy had a blood alcohol level almost twice the legal state limit.
Body cam footage released from the scene show Ramsammy and an unidentified woman speaking with police in the moments after the incident, as her car remained half-submerged in the ocean waves.
Eyewitnesses had alleged that Ramsammy’s car was going 50 mph. and nearly hit a child. “I was the driver, and they kinda stopped us, and they said that we almost hit a child,” Ramsammy said to police. “I didn’t think that we did, but that’s what they told us.”
“We were just trying to turn around; we didn’t think we could do a U-turn around here, so we were just trying to keep going,” Ramsammy told officers.
Officers in the video then told Ramsammy they were arresting her, to which she said, “Okay.”
Ramsammy has since been released from jail after posting $1,500 bail, records from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office show.
It is not immediately clear if she obtained legal counsel. has reached out for comment.
Meanwhile, beachgoers recounted the scary experience to the Today show, noting that they feel lucky to have avoided tragedy.
“My little one was playing in the sand and all of a sudden this guy started yelling, ‘Hey, watch out!’ ” Ashley Young, mom to a 3-year-old, recalled to the NBC morning program. “I was just yelling at them from the window like, ‘You almost hit my child, firstly, many other kids, dogs.’ And she was like, ‘Well, I didn’t.’ “
“I went to bed last night, just laying there thinking, ‘She could have easily just ran over a kid,’ ” said Ariel Hiddleston. “The only reason that she even stopped was because she got stopped.”