Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Recently there have been several articles in the local newspapers having to do with golf carts and cart paths in Peachtree City. On the front page of the Sept. 13 issue of The Coweta Citizen Review there was a column by David Epps regarding a golf cart accident that occurred on Aug. 13.

There were injuries to two small children that necessitated their being taken to local hospitals for emergency treatment. One, Josh Slepicka, an 8-year-old, was correctly depicted as a hero for his actions in refusing treatment until his 5-year-old sister was attended to by the police officer and emergency service personnel at the accident scene.

The fact that such an accident occurred did not surprise me at all. In fact, a couple of months ago I happened upon a golf cart accident in which there was an injury to an adult and collision damage done to the golf carts involved.

I ride my golf cart several times a week to either Planterra Ridge, Braelinn, or Flat Creek golf clubs. There are several spots along these trips where visibility around turns is definitely a problem and is a prime factor in these accidents. These paths are narrow, and carts swerve over to the other side of the path while making the turns.

Unfortunately, there are some cart drivers that don't make an effort to slow down or take precautions when making these turns. Some time ago I decided to be a defensive driver when these turns come up. Yes, sometimes I catch myself in being the culprit, but, for the most part I give ground to the oncoming vehicle when at these blind curves.

Widening these types of turn areas would go a long way toward improving the safety factor at these spots. However, the city's cart path repair budget does not currently provide the necessary funds to fix these problems throughout the community.

However, a temporary solution could be the drawing of orange paint lines in the middle of those paths that are determined to be dangerous due to visibility or being too narrow. These lines should start far enough in front of the curved danger area in order to allow the cart driver to be made aware that there is a dangerous section of the path ahead. Maybe that would catch his attention, and the driver would slow down, or at least keep on his or her side of the path.

The 70 to 80 miles of cart paths are a unique part of the Peachtree City story. It was mentioned in the Epps article that there were 9,000 golf carts in the city. There should be adequate funding provided by the city to see that these cart paths are safe.

I would imagine that these 9,000 carts, most of which are electric powered, have some measurable value towards our responsibility in cutting vehicle pollution emissions in the city and the county.

Couldn't our city, or Fayette County, get some golf cart path maintenance funding from the EPA or DOT for our substituting the golf carts for the cars that would ordinarily be making these trips to the golf courses and other destinations within the city?

Marv Prellberg

Peachtree City