Friday, May 7, 2004

Lohr: Golf carts not built for high speed By JOHN MUNFORD jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com Typically, the worst golf cart crashes in Peachtree City involving juveniles occur when the kids are heading downhill at high speeds, usually on purpose, said Fire Chief Stony Lohr. And when control of the cart is lost at high speed, that usually means the cart will roll over during the crash, Lohr said. “Most of our serious ones involve hills,” Lohr said. “They’re either free-wheeling it or pushing the pedal to the metal trying to go fast and they lost control.” Most carts typically have a brake on only one wheel, which can make stopping difficult, Lohr noted. Likewise, the suspension of most carts wasn’t designed to handle rough use, he added. “They weren’t built to go at high speeds,” Lohr said. Lohr said the city has been fortunate to avoid a fatality from golf cart accidents. In 1997 nationwide, golf cart wrecks claimed five lives, and of those five, four were rollover crashes, Lohr said. Last year, 24 serious golf cart accidents were recorded, up from five the previous year, Lohr said. The statistics, he added, don’t include when the department is not notified because the injured are taken to hospitals in private vehicles. Last year, a cart driven by a youngster going downhill at a high speed struck a tree and caused several serious injuries to the kids in the cart, Lohr recalled. Several weeks ago, another serious cart wreck occurred with high speeds going downhill to blame, he added. The golf cart industry also says a high number of injuries from golf carts are caused due to “improper seating.” “In other words, when they’re standing up or handing out of the cart,” Lohr said. “... The golf cart is not a toy. It has to be used responsibly.” The Peachtree City Fire Department recommends juveniles wear bicycle helmets when riding on golf carts. “If they do fall off, most of them hit their head,” Lohr said. “If you’re wearing a helmet it absorbs most of the impact.” Because regular golf carts don’t have rollover protection built-in, it’s actually good design for them not to have seat belts, Lohr said. That’s so passengers don’t get stuck on the vehicle when a rollover occurs, which could result in them getting trapped underneath the vehicle, Lohr added. The chief noted that golf carts were originally designed to assist handicapped persons and adapted to carry golfers along a golf course. Lohr said he likes the Global Electric Motorcars that are approved to use on Peachtree City’s cart path system because they have a host of safety features including rollover protection and seat belts in addition to brake lights and turn signals. The GEM cars, which must be operated on the “low” speed setting on the golf cart paths, have to meet all the safety requirements of a regular motor vehicle, Lohr noted.

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