Golf carts are not toys. All around The Villages and other parts of Florida, adults and even seniors use golf carts like joyriding teenagers. They don’t consider the real and dangerous impacts of driving golf carts under the influence until it’s too late. That’s why, strange as it sounds, we need to talk about DUIs and golf carts.
Drinking and Driving
In Florida, anyone driving under the influence, even while operating a golf cart, can be charged just the same as someone driving a traditional motor vehicle. Drinking and driving is a crime that endangers golf cart drivers and everyone else on the road.
DUI accidents involving golf carts aren’t just dangerous to the general public; they put the driver at serious risk of injury as well. Intoxicated passengers tend to suffer fewer injuries in car accidents because their bodies are relaxed, and they don’t resist being thrown around the car. However, this is partially thanks to the seatbelt, keeping them in place.
Golf carts are much more fragile and rarely have seatbelts. An intoxicated golf cart driver is unlikely to resist being thrown from the vehicle and into the road. This puts those intoxicated riders at higher risk of blunt trauma, road rash, and fractures.
Positive Change
Every week in The Villages, there’s at least one golf-cart related DUI in the local newspaper. It’s no wonder that some communities are creating checkpoints along golf-cart paths. Likewise, police are less likely to give warnings to golf cart DUIs, and many are issuing open-container citations for empty bottles inside the cart.
Creating positive change and making our community safer starts by helping people who are unsafe to drive. We must work together to raise awareness about these issues and ensure that we look out for our friends and neighbors, and make sure that they get home safely.
If you suffered serious injuries in a golf cart accident, we are here for you. If you’d like an experienced The Villages personal injury attorney from Ayres, Cluster, & Collins, P.A. to evaluate your case, please send us an email or call (352) 329-8668.