Wednesday, July 9, 2003

I can't understand what the big fuss is about 15-year-olds driving golf carts.

I have occasion to walk or ride my bicycle on Peachtree City's golf cart paths on a regular basis. Not a time goes by that I am not confronted with children obviously under the age of 15 (or 12) behind the wheel of a cart, often loaded down with passengers. I continue to see adults driving with toddlers on their laps. I have never seen a police officer on the paths.

Obviously, the law is not being enforced, so why is there such an uproar? Ignore the law. The kids don't care, the parents don't care and the police don't care.

The kids don't want to be subjected to the cruel and unusual punishment of walking or, God forbid, the lifelong emotional scars of riding a school bus. The parents don't want to confront their children with the foreign and uncomfortable concept that laws are made for the safety of everyone and are to be obeyed by everyone. The police explain that finding someone breaking the law by underage/unlicensed driving of a golf cart would tie up the officer's time for hours.

I have read the numerous rationalizations for allowing unlicensed (hence, uninstructed) children to drive golf carts. "It is a good way for Billy to get a feel for driving before putting him behind the wheel of a car." "It is a rite of passage." "It is a way of rewarding him." "It is so much more convenient than driving him myself."

So why should we interfere with this system of reward and training? Better yet, why don't we extend this method to other facets of growing up? When Billy is 12 or 14, get him a bottle of Jack Daniels and a gun. After all, he has to learn how to handle both of them and we may as well use the old sink or swim method; it works with golf carts.

I realize that the police are busy, but isn't my safety on the paths as important as ticketing someone for doing 45 in a 35 zone? A 15 mph golf cart flying around the corner on the wrong side of the road is as lethal as a Honda Civic (adults, that goes for you, too).

Can't the police force utilize trainees to spend an occasional day doing plain clothes duty on the paths? Can't they pull the carts over, remove the keys and tell the kids their parents can pick up the keys at the same police station where the fine is paid? A few fines would get the parents' attention. Penalizing the children would soon get everyone's attention.

How about if the offenders have to wait until they are 17 to get a driver's license? It's not a law, but maybe someday it will be. In the meantime, I will sit in my window and watch my neighbor take her cart to the pool, with her 5-year-old on her lap and behind the wheel.

Richard Appelhans

Peachtree City