On April 29 about 4:30 in the afternoon, I was walking back from a long run up Kelly Green Drive into Planterra Ridge when I heard a golf cart approaching fast behind me.

I glanced around and was surprised to see a young driver heading toward me rather than giving me space, so I quickly moved over and was shocked when she reached out and whacked me on the back as she passed within inches of me, never slowing down. On the road now, I said, “Excuse me?” to the golf cart with three passengers, but they didn’t stop.

A driver in a van witnessed the incident, which caught her eye because she thought the golf cart was going to hit me and fortunately she slowed down so she didn’t hit me herself when I jumped into the street.

The van driver chased the golf cart and told the teenage driver that she could have seriously hurt me and she needed to pull over, but the teenager gave her a sassy, “Leave me alone,” and then covered her golf cart number with her legs so the van driver couldn’t read it. The golf cart pulled around and drove left down Terrane Ridge.

The van driver called the police who came but didn’t find the golf cart driver. Apparently she dropped off the three passengers somewhere in the neighborhood (Cimmaron Park, Spectrum Vista, or Viridian View) and then proceeded up Terrane Ridge because she was seen near the tennis center alone and the other three were seen wandering around my street.

The driver is a white female, with dark (long?) hair and a tattoo on her arm. The passengers were (presumably) a black female and two white males. They appeared to be teenagers, the black girl perhaps as young as 13. She was driving a burgundy golf cart without a top, tan or light colored seats.

[Later] my husband spotted the young reckless driver and heroically chased her on his bicycle and removed the keys from her golf cart. He stayed with her while a neighbor called the police and me.

Her story is that she thought I was her friend’s mother, who is supposedly accustomed to these drive-by swats on the bum. When she realized I was not that person, she got scared and drove away because she didn’t want to get in trouble.

She obviously didn’t want her friends getting in trouble, which is why she dropped them off and then lied about them being on the golf cart during the incident.

Her mother was called to the scene and we resolved the conflict without pressing charges against her. Hopefully she will learn to drive more carefully and respect others. I’m glad to live in a town that does enforce the rules.

Kim Miller
Peachtree City, Ga.