Friday, July 11, 2003
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Friday, July 11, 2003 |
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Golf cart saga may not be over yet Lawyer wants Ga. Supreme Court to consider license requirement for cartsBy JOHN
MUNFORD
The recent court ruling that a driver's license is required to operate a golf cart will be challenged after all. Peachtree City attorney Lloyd Walker is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn the ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals, which came when Walker's client William T. Coker appealed his conviction for a suspended license. The appeals court ruled that Georgia law requires the license since the golf cart is "self-propelled" and thus a motor vehicle. The Supreme Court, however, has to decide whether it will even consider the case. It could decide to let the Appeals Court's ruling stand. But if not, "that means the Supreme Court would be concerned about the Appeals Court's decision," Walker said. "This case is very important to Peachtree City," he added. "I'm going to do my best to change this outcome." The appeals court ruling essentially bans anyone under 16 from driving golf carts. Previously, city ordinance allowed kids as young as 12 under parental supervision to drive the carts; 15-year-olds could drive them unsupervised with a valid learner's permit. The ruling also affects senior citizens who depend on the golf cart as their only means of transportation, Walker noted in court documents. "Many of the elderly persons affected by this ruling cannot safely operate an automobile while they can safely operate a golf cart," Walker wrote. "This ruling condemns many elderly persons in Peachtree City to being a shut-in. Perhaps nothing is worse for an elderly person than to be cut off from the society of others by the infirmities of old age. This opinion works that evil upon the elderly, without, in any way, promoting the safety concerns inherent in the driver's license statute." Walker argues that the section on motorized carts in Georgia law does not implicitly require a driver's license of operators. Furthermore, another portion of the law specifically allows local municipalities to regulate the conditions of how the carts shall be operated, Walker said. "In other words, did the legislature really intend that a driver's license was necessary to drive a golf cart? The answer is no," Walker wrote. Coker was convicted Jan. 10, 2002, of the suspended license charge and DUI. State Court Judge Fletcher Sams sentenced him to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. Coker has served the sentence and has been released from jail since he was credited for time he served before the sentence, Walker noted.
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