Kids driving golf carts on roads

[Innisfree]

This has started happening in our neighborhood. The kids are mostly driving to the pool, some maybe to friends' houses, and they are not accompanied by adults. One kid, I know, is around seven years old. I feel very uncomfortable about the practice, but I'm wondering if I'm being unreasonable. I'm not sure if there are any laws here about this, though I know a controversy arose about it in another local community about a decade back.

My concerns are that, while the neighborhood roads are pretty quiet, the kids are not as experienced as licensed drivers. The golf carts provide no protection in the (admittedly unlikely) event of a collision, but neither would a bicycle, I guess.

When I was out with older dd doing her practice driving we encountered one of these carts. It was sort of meandering in the road, and just seemed unpredictable.

Maybe all that's needed is some more parent instruction. Not sure. How does this work elsewhere?

[Kassia]

When my daughter was younger she had a friend with a golf cart.  I didn't allow her to go on it.  The family had a steep driveway and just that alone made me nervous - maybe even more than driving on the road.  I don't like it and don't think it's safe.  

ETA - I think the girls were around 9 years old at the time.  

Edited June 15, 2019 by Kassia

[alisoncooks]

Hmmm. Maybe if you're in a neighborhood with an HOA, that's already addressed in the "laws"? Then you can just bring it to the board's attention and they handle it? I'm pretty sure it is against the law, regardless (assuming it's not a private drive).  

A guy I graduated with fell off of the back of a golf cart and sustained a serious head injury. He passed away (in his mid-30s). 

That said, my oldest drives a golf cart at her grandparents' house, unaccompanied, but never on the road.  

Edited June 15, 2019 by alisoncooks

[Innisfree]

No HOA.

[marbel]

How about a non-emergency call to the local police?  Just ask the question about the legality.  I can't imagine that it is legal to for an unlicensed child to drive a motorized vehicle on a public road anywhere (in the US).  But of course I could be wrong.  Anyway, if it's illegal, the police can step up patrols in the neighborhood. Catch a kid in the act, take them home and confront the parents - no tickets or citations or anything, just tell them to knock it off.  Maybe? 

[Innisfree]

10 minutes ago, Kassia said:

a steep driveway 

This would make me nervous, too.

We have some hills, but not very steep. It's an older, wooded neighborhood. The streets are not very curvy. Visibility is pretty good, but not always perfectly clear.

9 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

A guy I graduated with fell off of the back of a golf cart and sustained a serious head injury. He passed away (in his mid-30s)

How awful. Falling off the back is something I hadn't even considered. Poor guy.

4 minutes ago, marbel said:

How about a non-emergency call to the local police?

I can do this, but wanted to make sure I wasn't overreacting first. If people generally thought of it as comparable to, say, riding a bike, then no need to make a fuss, and I'd tell myself not to be a curmudgeon. 

[marbel]

Curious, so I googled, and found this on a golf cart company site:

https://www.carycartco.com/custom-golf-carts/what-makes-a-cart-street-legal/

In all states, a Street Legal Golf Cart must be operated by a licensed driver. Below we’ve listed the federal requirements that each street legal and and low speed vehicle must have: {I omitted the requirements but they are in the link}

 

eta: I don't think it's curmudgeonly at all to be worried about something like this. I don't think it's at all like riding a bike. Though maybe the carts you are seeing are not what I am picturing. And, I know it can be hard to be the one complaining about people in the neighborhood.  

Edited June 15, 2019 by marbel

[sweet2ndchance]

24 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

When I was out with older dd doing her practice driving we encountered one of these carts. It was sort of meandering in the road, and just seemed unpredictable.

Maybe all that's needed is some more parent instruction. Not sure. How does this work elsewhere?

I grew up in a golf course community near a town with a high population of retirees. Some of the elderly retirees, who presumably had licenses but at the very least were more experienced driving than a 7 year old lol, would also meandered and turned into traffic unpredictably on their golf carts. Just saying I don't trust anyone on a golf cart regardless of age lol.

I know here, where I live now which is out in the country outside the city limits, children drive 4 wheelers, golf carts, dirt bikes, lawn mowers, tractors... without supervision but the second they are off their parent's property and on a public road, it is illegal for them to be driving and often the "vehicle" is illegal for use on public roads also. I would, and have, called the police and reported it if for nothing else but the child's safety. I'm not usually one to tell others how to parent but a child driving on a public road is endangering more than just themselves in my opinion.

[sassenach]

35 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

This has started happening in our neighborhood. The kids are mostly driving to the pool, some maybe to friends' houses, and they are not accompanied by adults. One kid, I know, is around seven years old. I feel very uncomfortable about the practice, but I'm wondering if I'm being unreasonable. I'm not sure if there are any laws here about this, though I know a controversy arose about it in another local community about a decade back.

My concerns are that, while the neighborhood roads are pretty quiet, the kids are not as experienced as licensed drivers. The golf carts provide no protection in the (admittedly unlikely) event of a collision, but neither would a bicycle, I guess.

When I was out with older dd doing her practice driving we encountered one of these carts. It was sort of meandering in the road, and just seemed unpredictable.

Maybe all that's needed is some more parent instruction. Not sure. How does this work elsewhere?

Do you have an HOA? This seems like something that may need to be tackled as a neighborhood. It would technically be illegal around here, but sometimes there’s neighborhood rules vs Main Street rules. In our neighborhood it’s electric scooters.

Incidentally, some of my favorite teen memories are when we would go to the river and our parents would let us loose with the golf carts. We were absolute idiots. Truly. But dang, it was fun. 

[SKL]

We don't have golf carts around, but I would note that kids are allowed / supposed to ride bikes in the street, so that would seem to present similar concerns.  As car drivers it's our responsibility to watch for and prevent accidents with people on less protected vehicles.  As parents, we of course need to teach our kids how to be safe in the road, but car drivers can't count on that.  As a kid, I did plenty of unsafe things my parents told me not to do.

[sassenach]

Do you have a neighborhood NextDoor? Maybe post something? It will probably ignite WW3, as things tend to go on ND but it might also make the parents with younger kids think twice. 

[Innisfree]

Nope, no HOA.  This is a new thing here, not an established custom, but becoming more common. There's also a new generation of younger parents moving in as original owners die off.

[sassenach]

1 minute ago, Innisfree said:

Nope, no HOA.  This is a new thing here, not an established custom, but becoming more common. There's also a new generation of younger parents moving in as original owners die off.

Well, if you contact the pd, maybe they could distribute flyers about the law and liability?

[Innisfree]

1 minute ago, sassenach said:

It will probably ignite WW3

Yeah, this I'd rather not do. 

If there's a general consensus that it's not safe, I'll let the police know. 

[Heathermomster]

Well, my neighbor had a golf cart and they must have been related in some way to a family living near the front of the subdivision because for a time, 2-3 girls were constantly driving between the houses.  One day, the kids and I were headed out in our car.  About 100 yards in front of us, the driver of the golf cart was acting foolish by jerking the wheel and swerving back and forth.  One of the occupants fell off the back.  The driver never noticed her friend fall off and cruised off leaving her occupant wounded and bleeding in the street.  DS and I stopped to help her.  We placed her in our car and drove her home.  The girl was crying and in bad shape.  Son walked her to her front door...Anyhoo...We didn’t notice many golf cart rides after that.  The girls looked to be about 14-15 years old.

Maybe, call the police and discover whether it’s legal.  We don’t have an hoa.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Heathermomster

[sassenach]

1 minute ago, Innisfree said:

Yeah, this I'd rather not do. 

If there's a general consensus that it's not safe, I'll let the police know. 

I don’t blame you! 😂

[sweet2ndchance]

13 minutes ago, sassenach said:

Incidentally, some of my favorite teen memories are when we would go to the river and our parents would let us loose with the golf carts. We were absolute idiots. Truly. But dang, it was fun. 

See, unless the teens were being unusually reckless, like playing chicken with oncoming traffic or running over little kids on their bikes, if the HOA guidelines said it was fine within the community, I wouldn't have a problem with a teen driving a golfcart. I wouldn't even report a teen driving a golfcart around where I live now unless they were being reckless or doing something illegal, it's the child of 7 driving on a public road that would concern me.

My youngest son is 6.5yo. He's allowed to drive the lawn mower on certain areas of our property but he's not allowed anywhere near the public road which is 1/8 of a mile down a private dirt road that he isn't allowed to go down by himself even on foot. He is supervised and has had lots of lap driving and instruction before he was allowed to drive one himself. Dh did the same on our property when he was a child.

ETA: I forgot to mention the lawn mower does not have any blades and is essentially a cheap 4 wheeler. It's common around here to let kids as young as my youngest to drive old lawn mowers without blades through fields and pastures but it occurred to me that it's not common everywhere to have a lawn mower with no blades just for riding and pulling things around the property when you don't want to start up the tractor, lol.

Edited June 15, 2019 by sweet2ndchance
correct the spelling and ETA

[Pen]

Call non emergency police number or non emergency Sheriff department number and say you’re concerned 

[linders]

Check your state laws - just google state + golf carts + road.

The laws were recently strengthened where we live (South Carolina). To drive on the road, golf carts must be permitted and the driver must be at least 16 with a valid driver's license.

[Farrar]

Around here, it's the motorized scooters in heavy traffic. I can't imagine what you're describing. Wow. Like, young teens driving them? Yeah, it could go awry, but so can old people or anyone really. They have a pretty low top speed and if they stay in a quiet neighborhood... but a 7 yo!? I can't imagine that's remotely safe.

[Storygirl]

I agree with calling the police and asking if it is legal and ask if they will patrol through your neighborhood more regularly to observe what is happening.

My dad owned a golf cart, and he would let the kids drive it up and down his street, just for fun, while he rode beside them. But not until they were perhaps age 10 and up, and not alone, and his house happens to be the only one on his street. So there were a lot of safety things in place there that made me okay with it.

I am very safety conscious, and I would not let a young child ride a lawn mower, as mentioned by a previous poster. My sister-in-law's brother died when he was four or five after falling off a tractor (they lived on a farm). He was run over by a cart being towed behind it. His dad was driving. I also knew of a young boy who had a serious life long injury to his foot when driving a lawn mower. So I know that others allow it, but I just won't risk it. We didn't let the kids ride on DH's lap when he was mowing, when they were little, either.

The golf cart thing as described by the OP would bother me a lot. Not only out of concern for the children riding in it, but also because they may be a danger to other traffic and pedestrians in the neighborhood.

[teachermom2834]

Not the same but we have a young man (20ish) who rides through our neighborhood on a golf cart with and very small infant on his lap. Baby in one arm, steering wheel in the other and not super slow either. It just upset me so much to see that. One little bump or baby wriggling loose. We have a busy neighborhood full of kids and pets and wildlife and the chance of something darting out in front of golf cart is high. I’m usually pretty “to each their own” about parenting decisions but this upset me so much. But other people in the neighborhood were thinking it was sweet so I guess I’m overreacting. ??? It is super cute the young guy taking baby out for a spin. IF nothing goes wrong. But people where I live are very lax about safety. (Seat belts optional, no bike helmets, little kids riding motorized little vehicles in the street unsupervised, etc..) So I’m kinda the crazy lady for requiring seat belts and supervising my dd riding her bike in the street with a helmet.

[Innisfree]

Okay, thanks, everyone. I appreciate the responses.

I checked the laws. They require the driver to be at least 16 and licensed. Dd tells me she thinks the girl I mentioned is 8 now, not 7, but still clearly not legal. The various stories seem to indicate the dangers here are real, so if I see a young kid driving again I'll probably call the non-emergency police line. 

[Pen]

36 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

Okay, thanks, everyone. I appreciate the responses.

I checked the laws. They require the driver to be at least 16 and licensed. Dd tells me she thinks the girl I mentioned is 8 now, not 7, but still clearly not legal. The various stories seem to indicate the dangers here are real, so if I see a young kid driving again I'll probably call the non-emergency police line. 

 

You might want to call when it isn’t happening.  Unless you have a better hu-manned department than in most places, they won’t likely be able to respond in a timely way.  But they may be able to have a patrol car drive through from time to time when not busy. Or even visit a particular home 

[lavender's green]

I went to elementary school with a kid who was seriously injured when his grandfather backed over him with a golf cart. And a girl down the road from us picked up my sister in a golf cart and then they crossed a 4 lane highway where cars regularly go 70 mph (speed limit 55). 

Just because something looks cute and little doesn't mean it's totally safe. And sometimes kids are capable of something, but lack the maturity to handle split-second decisions, not goofing off, understanding rules of the road and laws of physics, spacial awareness, all the ways something could go wrong, etc.

I'm pretty relaxed about how others parent, but I draw the line when it's a matter of public safety.

[TechWife]

That isn’t legal here. 

[zimom]

5 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

See, unless the teens were being unusually reckless, like playing chicken with oncoming traffic or running over little kids on their bikes, if the HOA guidelines said it was fine within the community, I wouldn't have a problem with a teen driving a golfcart. I wouldn't even report a teen driving a golfcart around where I live now unless they were being reckless or doing something illegal, it's the child of 7 driving on a public road that would concern me.

My youngest son is 6.5yo. He's allowed to drive the lawn mower on certain areas of our property but he's not allowed anywhere near the public road which is 1/8 of a mile down a private dirt road that he isn't allowed to go down by himself even on foot. He is supervised and has had lots of lap driving and instruction before he was allowed to drive one himself. Dh did the same on our property when he was a child.

ETA: I forgot to mention the lawn mower does not have any blades and is essentially a cheap 4 wheeler. It's common around here to let kids as young as my youngest to drive old lawn mowers without blades through fields and pastures but it occurred to me that it's not common everywhere to have a lawn mower with no blades just for riding and pulling things around the property when you don't want to start up the tractor, lol.

 

Thank you so much for editing to let us know the lawn mower does not have blades.  I know so many children that are amputees due to lawn mower accidents.  

www.limbsmatter.com    

Great information about kids and lawn mower safety.

[sweet2ndchance]

When my now adult children were little, we lived in neighborhoods with yards barely big enough to justify a push mower and I would have never dreamed that I would let my young elementary age child drive a riding lawn mower on their own but my youngest son has always lived out in the country on 7 acres with large flat fields he can drive through safely on low. Then it occurred to me that when my big kids were little, I didn't know lawn mowers without blades being used as very small tractors was a thing so others might not either lol. I knew I meant the bladeless lawn mower that we use to ride around our property picking up stray limbs or with the little wagon attached pulling tools or cinderblocks to where we need them but then I remembered keeping a bladeless lawn mower isn't the norm everywhere. There is no way I would let him drive it around with sharp spinning bars underneath. He also knows there are strict rules on the lawn mower and if he breaks one even once he will not be given a second chance. He has had it ingrained in him that it is a tool that is normally reserved for grown ups, not a toy, and if he wants to help out around here by driving the lawn mower around he has to act the same way a grown up would/should when using it.

Then again, we were given an almost new Ford 150 power wheels because it had been left out in the rain and shorted out the circuits. My husband was able to fix it and get it working again for ds but now they (dh and ds) are looking into getting a hold of a lawn mower engine to put in it so it will run off gas instead and go faster, more like a go cart. lol When my oldest son was 6.5yo, I would have asked dh if he lost his mind... 4th boy and 2 girls later, I just shake my head and tell them don't track dirt in the house with it. lol

[sarahbobeara]

We live in a flat neighborhood, small yards, and it's a small neighborhood compared to some massive subdivisions out here (that's why we chose this house). Many residents have golf carts here, and we are not even attached to a golf course community. I see many kids driving carts, probably more often than I see kids on bikes. A few are driving under direct instruction of an adult, but they're younger than 10 and an adult is sitting right next to them. I've had a cart at full throttle pass me on a midnight dog walk, driven by a couple of 12 year old boys. I haven't seen them again; I suspect they did some damage to it because I've never heard a cart that loud before!

There is one cart that has the speakers, heavily treaded tires, and sparkly purple paint driven by a 13/14 year old girl. She's been pretty responsible whenever I've seen her drive, and she's out A LOT with her friends. In fact I don't even know if I've ever seen her driving with an adult, usually it's packed with kids and they're making rounds. There are adults here that drive WORSE than the kids, even driving without lights on at night, and I suspect they have a few beers with the neighbors and then they all climb on for a jaunt. My reflective dog leashes and shoes/etc won't protect me if they're driving without lights! So we have young cart drivers and possibly drunk cart drivers...and definitely open container cart drivers. 

My concern with kids driving so young is if they hit my parked-on-the-street car will they fess up to their parent and make it right, compensating me or fixing damage to my car? And if they do hit my parked car or jump the curb and run into my house (worse case scenario here) am I liable for their injuries? Common sense tells me I'm not liable but who knows how it would actually play out. I have not consulted our HOA rules but obviously it's permitted in the community otherwise so many people wouldn't buy them, right?

My kids love my parents' golf cart, and they'd love to have a golf cart here but if we got one, they would get even LESS exercise than they do now lol. We live in Florida. It's hot and flat. Get the sweat going and that breeze will do its best to cool you down!

[Shoeless]

It's not legal and it's not safe.  I am not aware of any law that says 7 and 8 year olds are allowed to drive motorized vehicles on public roads as long as it's super fun, the cart is cute, and everyone else is doing it. 

On private property, there is no law barring kids from driving at any age.  The kids can drive all over the parents property in whatever kind of vehicle they want.  Once they hit the road, it's illegal. The youngest legal driving age I found in the US is 14 years old.  You don't need a license to drive farm equipment because it would be operated on private property. 

In addition to all that, it's doubtful these golf carts are carrying insurance. If the kids smash into your vehicle or property, you'll have to chase down the parents to get your stuff fixed.  Good luck with that.   

[Selkie]

21 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

On private property, there is no law barring kids from driving at any age.  The kids can drive all over the parents property in whatever kind of vehicle they want.  Once they hit the road, it's illegal. The youngest legal driving age I found in the US is 14 years old.  You don't need a license to drive farm equipment because it would be operated on private property. 

 

I think the rules on farm equipment vary by state. I live in farm country and there is farm machinery on the roads all the time. Many farmers have land that is spread out across the county and not confined to a single parcel of land, so there is a lot of time spent driving equipment back and forth. There is no age or license requirement in our state, so you will often see kids driving tractors, combines, etc. on the road. I personally would never allow this, but it happens all the time.

There are also several golf resorts around here, and at least a few times every year there are ambulance calls for adults who have rolled golf carts and gotten injured, sometimes severely. And don't even get me started on ATVs...there have been so many kids killed on those things around here, and adults, too. Ugh.🙁

[katilac]

9 hours ago, Innisfree said:

I checked the laws. They require the driver to be at least 16 and licensed.  

That's for street legal carts, which I doubt these are. The easiest way to tell is to look for seat belts. 

[Carrie12345]

My community just passed rules allowing golf carts. We have 60 miles of private roads, so state street laws don’t apply. (Troopers won’t even pick up DUIs unless the driver exits the community.)  But our rules only allow licensed drivers to operate them. 

Dh and dd were called out to a golf cart accident in another community, involving older, sober adults. It was the worst scene dd has ever been called to, and she’s gone to a lot of car accidents on high speed roads.  We let our kids go four wheeling and have considered quarter midget racing, but golf carts are out of the question. Unless maybe if they take up golfing!

[vonfirmath]

On 6/15/2019 at 9:53 AM, sweet2ndchance said:

I grew up in a golf course community near a town with a high population of retirees. Some of the elderly retirees, who presumably had licenses but at the very least were more experienced driving than a 7 year old lol, would also meandered and turned into traffic unpredictably on their golf carts. Just saying I don't trust anyone on a golf cart regardless of age lol.

I know here, where I live now which is out in the country outside the city limits, children drive 4 wheelers, golf carts, dirt bikes, lawn mowers, tractors... without supervision but the second they are off their parent's property and on a public road, it is illegal for them to be driving and often the "vehicle" is illegal for use on public roads also. I would, and have, called the police and reported it if for nothing else but the child's safety. I'm not usually one to tell others how to parent but a child driving on a public road is endangering more than just themselves in my opinion.

 

My father lives rurally and has a zero-turn radius mower my son loves to operate. But last week, my son started to go across the street in the mower and my dad pulled him off and told him his mowing was done for the day.  When he let him back on on Friday to mow the (slightly grown) grass, my son was much more careful.

But yes, not allowed on the road.  I do wonder if some of it is that parents see other kids doing it and dont realize it is illegal, to the point where eventually they figure they are being the fuddy duddys for not allowing it.  Peer pressure works on parents that don't know the rules themselves.

[Janeway]

In most places, it is against the law. It is considered a motor vehicle and they are not supposed to do that without a license. In other places, golf carts are simply banned from the roads and sidewalks.

[Bambam]

In our state (TX), golf carts cannot be driven on public roads - it must be a licensed/tagged vehicle. However, our neighborhood (and the last one) did not have public roads - but private roads, so it is legal for them to operate on the private roads. However, I have seen young (5/6/7) driving golf cars through the neighborhood *while on their phones*. I had to stop one time and back up lest I get hit by such a golf cart. We have had a couple of neighbors post about it on our FB neighborhood group, and several people jump on them - It's just kids. It's summer -let them have fun!

However, in our state, you have to be 14 to drive an ATV without adult supervision. And yes, there seem to be kids out here driving ATVs on the roads who appear to be younger (no helmets nor shoes either).  We've complained about that before - but no one seems to have listened. 

I would not let my kids participate in any of this.