Boomers often mutter unmentionable things when they see golf carts speeding along residential streets, and in too many cases, urban streets with cars.
Too often, unlicensed teenagers are the drivers. Seat belts aren’t anywhere to be seen. Carts impede the routine flow of traffic, representing a clear and present danger to road safety. But the party of the oblivious goes on.
“They are not safe on the streets, period,” Charleston City Councilman Mike Seekings told us in 2024. “They have very limited protections for people in them.”
Meanwhile, golf carts on roadways persist, particularly in neighborhoods where many say they’re exploding in numbers like, well, rabbits.
Two years ago, we offered a cover story on the potential dangers of golf carts to Charleston-area residents. These vehicles — which are perfect to navigate golf courses — are unsafe and not appropriate for streets and roads. For too many golf cart operators, rules apparently are meant to be broken or ignored.
So now comes another death, a tragedy involving 46-year-old Christopher Faulk of West Ashley. Authorities say he died Sunday after being ejected and trapped under a golf cart after it turned at high speed in a residential neighborhood.
Faulk was the fourth person in the county to die in recent years in accidents involving a golf cart. Two other people died when their golf carts flipped, Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal said. And then there was the high-profile 2023 tragedy on Folly Beach in which a newlywed bride died after the cart she was in with her husband was hit by a car driven by a drunken driver.
“Carts are just built to be out of traffic, not in it, and in an incident between a car and a golf cart, the car is going to win every time,” Seekings noted in 2024.
Rules and regulations are in place to help keep cart operators safe, particularly when sharing the road with heavier, stronger vehicles. But for rules to be effective, golf cart drivers have to observe them and keep safety in mind.
If it were up to us, we’d get rid of golf carts on roads altogether. But for now, let’s hope golf cart drivers will slow down. Let’s hope parents will stop giving their children the freedom to steer carts through residential and city streets. And let’s hope anyone in a golf cart uses more common sense so no one has to go through the kind of tragedy that occurred this week.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.