An Horry County police officer ran over her on the beach. Now she's speaking out. (2024)

GARDEN CITY — She moved here for the beach.

It’s where she walked her dogs and read her Bible. Once summer’s warmth arrived, the retiree from Long Island found herself on the sand almost daily. Her husband called her group of friends “the beach ladies.”

Noreen Fallon-Sydor also remembers her last trip to see the ocean: May 24, 2020, the day an Horry County Police officer ran over her.

“Now I don’t go at all because I'm afraid,” the 73-year-old said.

The memories from that accident have haunted Fallon-Sydor in recent days after another woman, 66-year-old Sandy Schultz-Peters, was run over by a county officer on June 13. Unlike Fallon-Sydor, she didn’t survive.

“This time I said, ‘No, I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to,’” Fallon-Sydor said, adding that she started calling county leadership after the deadly accident. “This can’t be. You’re not going to take another life. … Nobody gets up and goes to the beach and says, ‘Well, this might be my last day here.”

Schultz-Peters’ death has generatedcalls for public safety personnel to stop driving trucks and other full-size vehicles on the beachunless they are responding to an emergency. County police announced June 20 that they had reduced the number of trucks on the sand and would rely more on ATVs and foot patrols.

But Fallon-Sydor remains frustrated that the police department didn’t stop driving beach trucks and SUVs after her accident four years ago.

“I really thought that there was going to be some kind of changes,” she said. “And there wasn’t.”

On the day of her accident, Fallon-Sydor said she had come to the beach access near Garden City's Holly Avenue and was sitting in a rainbow-colored chair reading the book of Psalms. She remembers telling some of her friends who had just arrived not to set up near her because she was about to leave.

“The next thing I know, he ran over my legs,” she said.

Beach patrol officer Scott Sullivan told the S.C. Highway Patrol that around 10:30 a.m. he had been driving a Chevy Tahoe onto a beach access when the accident happened, according to a Highway Patrol report. Sullivan said he was turning right and some trash cans had blocked his view of Fallon-Sydor.

The injured woman told the Highway Patrol she didn't realize she was in a blind spot, according to the report. The county's online court records don't show any charges for Sullivan in that case.

Fallon-Sydor remembers being in agony and people running to check on her. She said the Tahoe stopped after running over her, almost like it was straddling a speed bump. A sergeant held her hand to comfort her.

The accident didn’t break any bones, but it ravaged her muscles. Fallon-Sydor said doctors initially thought they would have to amputate her right leg, but a trauma surgeon was able to save it. Her right calf is gone, she needed a skin graft and she suffered a tunneling wound.

Fallon-Sydor has been through multiple surgeries, but she can barely walk and only for short distances. Her husband gets a wheelchair for her at the airport, and for exercise she goes to Walmart and pushes a cart down a few aisles. She has a walker. She receives acupuncture treatments, but she cringes when their cats rub against her legs. Sometimes her husband goes to the back of the house because she’s moaning and it hurts to listen.

“Any other tragedy, shootings or accidents or whatever, you never hear about what happens afterwards to the victim,” said her husband John Sydor, a 74-year-old retired police officer. “She is in pain every single day.”

When asked if county police made any policy changes after the 2020 accident, department spokeswoman Mikayla Moskov said she would look into the matter but couldn’t provide an answer on Friday. She did say beach patrol officers are required to complete a U.S. Lifesaving Association beach driving course and the department's annual beach driver training.

The Post and Courier has asked for copies of any reports from Fallon-Sydor’s accident, but that request is still being processed.

Even if the county continues to limit the number of trucks on the beach, Fallon-Sydor still fears another accident could happen, particularly with the hectic summer crowds.

“Get out of your vehicles and walk the beach,” she said. “Sorry, there’s no reason why you need to be in a big truck like that. … You can’t see. You can’t maneuver around all the people. It’s not safe.”

Some state lawmakers agree with her. State Rep. William Bailey, R-Little River, said he plans to introduce a bill that if approved would limit agencies’ use of full-size vehicles on the beach during the busiest summer hours. In the case of emergencies, he said, first responders should use their lights and siren to alert beachgoers.

Bailey pointed out thatpolice in Sunset Beach, N.C., stopped using beach trucks during peak times after Schultz-Peters’ death, and Myrtle Beach officials announced they would look at adding exterior cameras and detection sensors on their beach trucks. He also noted that the officer who ran over Schultz-Peters is Julian "Duke" Brown, the county's longtime beach safety director.

Brown has not been charged with any crime, but Bailey said change is critical.

“That was the most tragic thing,” he said. “And they can’t say it’s about training because the individual who did this is probably one of the most trained individuals on the East Coast.”

In some ways, Fallon-Sydor considers herself lucky. She survived. She kept her leg.She still gets to Bible study twice a week and she goes to services at the Church of Christ on Glenns Bay Road. She also has supportive friends and a husband who dotes on her. In August, the couple will celebrate 20 years of marriage.

But the accident's trauma continues.They bought their yellow house in 2005 and she moved there in 2007. Their place is just a few miles from the beach, the magnet that brought them from New York.

Fallon-Sydor keeps thinking about what happened to Schultz-Peters, and what happened to her.

“And [I'm] still going through it,” she said. “It’s not like it ever goes away.”