Golf Carts In Seven Lakes

What could be better in Seven Lakes than taking your cart down the street for some ice cream in the summer, or out on the road to go visit your neighbor down the street? Unfortunately, not all golf carts are street legal. You might have heard the term “street allowed,” which we’ll explain here. While it might sound like a good story to tell people later on, getting pulled over in a golf cart is far from a fun experience.

North Carolina has some of the most specific rules for golf cart use in the nation, and this specificity continues with its low-speed vehicle use as well.

You also need to have a valid driver’s license, a registration, a license, and Personal Injury Protection and Property Damage insurance coverage.

To be legally operated on the roads, your cart must be equipped with headlights, taillights, turn signals, brake lights, reflex reflectors, parking brakes, rearview mirrors, seat belts, a windshield, horn, and DOT-approved tires. Your cart must also have a VIN and registration, and the driver must possess a valid driver’s license.  Street legal carts are allowed to operate on roads that have a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or slower.

Technically classified as a Low Speed Vehicle, or LSV, your cart is allowed to cross a street that has a higher posted speed limit, but you may not drive it on these streets. Street allowed carts are not allowed on public streets, but certain communities have petitioned to allow carts within certain municipalities, which means golf carts are welcome on the streets in places like  Pinehurst, and Wrightsville Beach.   Each community may have specific restrictions, so be sure to check in with the local government.

Kids and Golf Carts

Accidents do happen and it could be just a matter of time for an underage driver of a golf cart to hurt someone on the streets of Seven Lakes or riding with them.

Golf carts aren‘t just for golfers anymore, and their widening use means injuries for kids who want to give the vehicles a whirl, new research shows.

Researchers looked at more than 100 children treated at pediatric or adult trauma centers in Pennsylvania after being injured in a golf cart.  The injuries weren‘t always mild. Three-quarters experienced at least one bone fracture; more than 4 in 10 suffered a skull fracture; and more than a third required admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), the study showed.

Unfortunately I hope this never occurs but if it does, parents  will have a rude awakening when the lawsuits begin alleging “parental negligence and name the HOA also.”  This could be a catastrophic for the families and the community.

In NC the driver of golf cart must be at least 16 years of age and hold a valid driver’s license. Driver must have with them proof of liability insurance and valid drivers license.

Recently in FL four children were riding in a Golf Cart when the unlicensed 15-year-old girl driving the cart darted in front of an oncoming car.  The car, crashed into the golf cart, causing its driver and passengers, ages 11, 13, 14 and 15, to be ejected onto the street.  The children were transported by ambulance to the local trauma unit at where one was treated for a catastrophic injury. 

While the parents of the golf cart driver can be sued for negligence in such a case, the association can also be named as a defendant.  In fact, according to the HOA community’s governing documents filed with the clerk of courts, they  required a golf cart driver to be at least 16 years old and carry a valid driver’s license.  If enforcement of this rule was lax, potential liability could be alleged.

Typically, insurance companies and lawyers representing the injured in any golf cart crash will investigate every aspect of the incident. 

They will look into the association’s actions and warnings to enforce its rules involving underage cart drivers, and whether any notices had previously been sent to either the driver or their parents.  They will also explore the actions of the parent/owner of the vehicle.

For communities like Seven Lakes in which golf carts are prevalent, associations  must develop and enforce their own rules and restrictions for age and license requirements for drivers, and security must monitor and stop all offenders in order to provide effective enforcement. 

Otherwise, our community risks potentially significant exposure and legal liability in the event there is an accident involving an underage golf cart driver.

If you plan on using your golf cart behind the gates, then you should be fine with a golf cart that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a street legal cart. NC statutes “§153A-245, “§ 160A-300.6. allows a municipality/county to regulate golf carts on any street with a speed limit 35 mph or less and the operator must be 16 or older.