Lakeland 6-year-old dies after fall from golf cart

[zeg]

Just a little more on zegs post. You say you would not wear a seat belt for moving a cart up a short distance. Now i agree that i dont wear a seatbelt in a car in a parking lot. This is because in a parking lot Im going at low speeds (20 mph or less). Now a golf cart is ALWAYS going 20 mph or less so it seems to me that your agreeing that seatbelts are not necessary at low speeds (which is a golf cart 100% of the time).

No, I'm not agreeing that they're not necessary at low speeds. If that's what I'd meant, that's what I'd have said. What I said was 30 feet (i.e., a very short distance) over flat ground. In these situations, the risk is low enough that I might not bother. That said, when I get into a car, even to move across a parking lot, I usually do put on my seat belt. It takes a couple seconds and is done before the car is even ready to put in gear, so I'd be likely to use a well-designed seat belt in a golf cart virtually every time...

Seat belts are helpful any time you may be thrown from your seat. An unexpected sudden stop (faster than the lousy brakes on a golf cart I mean) at 20mph will plaster you into the windshield if you're not holding on to something. Furthermore, golf courses are known to tip or roll; I doubt safety studies have been done with them, but I'm willing to bet you're as safe or safer if you stay in your seat where you're not going to worry about than falling out and hoping you don't get rolled over by the cart. And yeah, if your idea of a seat belt is a rope tying you in such that you can fall off to the side and be dragged due to the seat design in a cart, then obviously it's going to be unsafe. I'm pretty sure I specified a well-designed seat belt.... it's not an insurmountable engineering problem....

[Fozcycle]

Golf Carts were meant to be used on the Golf Course, not cruising down the road in a subdivision.

[Hoovedawg]

Zeg-- plain and simple, seatbelts in golf carts is an incredibly stupid idea. You arent going to change my mind (and probablly just about everyone elses). If you want one then by all means install one in your cart but to me personally it isnt worth it. Statistically you are actually more likely to be killed or injured by a golf ball, or club than by a golf cart. Maybe we should all wear helmets out to the course. Another interesting tidbit to consider you are over one million (1,000,000%) percent more likely to be killed on the car ride to the course than in the golf cart.

Now am i saying that a golf cart with seatbelts wont improve safety, NO. Im just saying that it is not reasonable, logical, practical or necessary. But if a seatbelt makes it safer than why stop there, why not install a nascar style safety harness, neck brace and roll cage? Because its not necessary. I could go on all day with statistics showing how unlikely golf cart deaths are but if you havent caught on by now then im not sure if you will.

[Cornbread]

A couple months back I was playing my course one evening. I drove up to the green and there was a cart on it right side Beside it stood a Dad and two 8 yr old girls who were crying with skint knees and elbows. The dad had screwed up his knee and couldn't walk. Not sure how he done it but he flipped that cart with the girls in it, and at a level place where they should be starting and stopping. GO figure.