Tragic all around

That sunbather run over and killed on the beach in Oxnard was Cindy Conolly, 49, of Sioux City, Iowa. She was staying with her fiance at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort. Oxnard police plan to meet with her relatives today and explain how two officers patrolling in an SUV didn't see Conolly as she lay on the sand. LAT:

"We're devastated. This is a tragic, tragic event," [Cmdr. Tom] Chronister said. "We've been patrolling beaches for at least 30 years, since the mid-1970s, and nothing like this has ever happened."

Chronister said two unidentified officers were in an SUV on a routine patrol of the beach Monday. They came down a paved pedestrian path that cuts through the sand dunes and continued west toward the beach. At the end of the walkway, they drove onto the sand.

Right before the shoreline, there is a 2-foot berm, a gentle slope just before the tidal zone, he said. According to Chronister, the officers were looking at a swimmer in the ocean when they rolled down the slope. The woman was lying in a light blue swimsuit by herself when the SUV rolled over her.

Chronister said the officers were not aware of what happened, perhaps because the sand was soft and the beach bumpy.

The vehicle turned right and continued along the shore for about a mile, he said. They were returning onto nearby surface streets when they got a call that a woman on the beach was bleeding. The officers went back to the site, got out and realized what had happened.

Hard as it is for Conolly's family, I feel almost as bad for the officer driving the truck. At the scene he was observed sobbing and trying to help.

Yesterday: Watch where you sunbathe