On par with safety.

• Author: King, Brad
• Position: NC GOLF

Golf carts have a history of safety issues, despite generally traveling at modest speeds. Failing to pay attention, reckless speeding, or abrupt stops and turns can lead to passengers being thrown from carts. Arms and legs hanging out of golf carts have led to many bad injuries.

All that is true on the course, but the stakes get higher as more carts traverse public roads. In areas without paths designed for carts, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety coined their use as "a safety nightmare waiting to happen."

In June 2021, a 41-year-old Wake County optometrist was heading home in a cart after a party at her Holly Springs golf course community clubhouse when she was killed in a crash. Her husband was charged with death by motor vehicle and possession of an open container of alcohol but did not receive a prison sentence, according to Wake County Court records.

About 156,000 people in the U.S. required emergency-room treatment for golf cart-related injuries between 2007-17, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of Safety Research.

"Golf-cart use remains an important source of injury for people of all ages, especially in children," researchers concluded. "As use continues to increase, it is unlikely that golf cart-related injuries will decrease without substantial changes to product design, regulation, and/or...