Comments on: DetN Hypes Golf Carts, Forgets Safety

By: taxman100

taxman100 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:38:42 +0000

That’s right – the world is out to get you.

Better stay home.

By: nudave

nudave — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:51:44 +0000

Would it not have been more humane for Mr. Auld to have had a vasectomy rather than trying to kill his children this way?

By: Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:48:32 +0000

My 65 year old Dad just brought a street legal mini dune buggy as his daily driver and sold his old vehicle. Has plates, tags, everything. 5 point harness and a roll cage so it is safer than a motorcycle or a golf cart. It goes 50mph so he doesn’t drive it on the freeway.

The freakin’ thing is getting 88 MPG. 88! He is like a celebrity too, everyone asks him about the thing. He is conscious about theft and safety. Now I do worry about him surviving an accident with a truck, but he is definitely more safe on it than the millions who drive a motorcycle.

By: RayH

RayH — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:22:37 +0000

I’m guessing half those injuries at the country clubs were from bored caddys and valet parkers, speaking from experience ages 17-24 as a valet. Put those things in neutral down a steep grade with a sharp turn at the end… My last year there I took a 17-year-old caddy to the hospital after he rolled the gas “club tow” cart 5 times… broke both his wrist, at least not his neck.

By: BlueBrat

BlueBrat — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:18:48 +0000

Wow we were a few decades too early on this one. As a teenager, me and a friend would grab the dead golfcarts from a local course for cheap and fix them up to running again. We paid more for a good battery than 4 carts! It was fun figuring out the electrical in those as they were very easy to work on.

We just fixed them up to run again and beat the hell out of them at the local dirtbike tracks, fields, etc.

And yes, they toppled over very easily. I wouldn’t put my kids on the back of one of them AT ALL, nor inside the thing when driving anywhere outside of a golf course.

One one cart, we welded a cage form an old Willy’s jeep so it would take a roll or tilt and not crush us. We never got it to roll completely over, but the extra weight on top made it easier to sharply turn the wheel at speed and have it fall on its side.

God we were idiots. :)

By: Hank

Hank — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:59 +0000

Re: the golf cart dealer

Aren’t these illegal to drive on public roads in most states? I know there are gated communities that allow them, and Catalina Island only allows carts. But everywhere I’ve lived–both suburban and urban–they were banned from city streets unless you were a meter maid.

By: NeonCat93

NeonCat93 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:38:41 +0000

Having been raised to always, always, always wear seat belts, whenever I ride in a golf cart I feel a frisson of fear. I don’t feel it on a bus – a bus, after all, has walls, doors, windows, grab bars, straps, mass, etc. Golf carts don’t have anything.

By: Banned User

Banned User — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:32:24 +0000

Add a couple thousand pounds of government regulated safety equipment and the American public will be saved.

By: Samir

Samir — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:29:02 +0000

I wouldn’t mind a golf car. Just give it an actual belt line, swoopy styling, headlights, air conditioning for when it’s too hot, a trunk that’s bigger than the silly basket most of them have, some airbags, windows for when it rains, bigger tires and maybe a throbbing V8. Oh wait.

By: Dasher

Dasher — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:16:02 +0000

On golf courses I am sure that many of the injuries are due to roll overs. There is no underestimating the intelligence of the American public. They do a lot of stupid things. Don’t blame the golf carts blame the drivers of them, many who are also consuming alcohol.

By: NBK-Boston

NBK-Boston — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:04:01 +0000

Yeah — but how serious? And what’s the rate per driver / miles driven / trips undertaken? How many fatalities and pedestrian injuries? What are the causes of these injuries — would a simple lap belt cut them significantly?

There’s something here, but it’s a pot of soup from a single onion at this stage.