More than 15,000 people each year end up in the emergency room due to golf cart injuries. Oftentimes these injuries are severe, catastrophic, and life-altering. With this startling statistic in mind, it is clear that golf cart safety needs to be on everyone’s mind whenever on the links.
If you own a golf cart:
- Do not allow your underage child to drive the golf cart: Golf carts are not toys. If your child, who does not have a driver’s license, drives your golf cart, you may be liable for any injuries that they cause to others. This falls under a negligent entrustment theory. You can be held personally responsible. This could be devastating financially to you and your family. It is not “cool to be cool” and allow children to operate a golf cart. They need to be licensed drivers. Just say “NO” and have strict rules.
- Make sure your golf cart is separately insured: It costs about $75 per year to have a $300,000 insurance policy on a golf cart. You should also have a $1,000,000 umbrella policy (sleep-well-at-night insurance). Your homeowners’ insurance typically will exclude coverage of any golf cart used outside of a golf course. This is really important to know if you live in a neighborhood and you drive your golf cart on the roadway to get to the links. If there is an accident, you may not be covered under your homeowners’ insurance, so take the initiative and make sure to separately insure your golf cart today.
Golf Cart Injuries on Golf Courses
What can happen to cause a golf cart accident and serious injuries? In many cases, a golf cart tips and injuries its passengers in a rollover accident, which might be caused due to user error or a defect with the golf cart itself. Negligent operation by another golfer can also be the direct cause of a golf car accident. Even the pathway around a golf course designated for golf cart use can be hazardous and cause a crash, such as paths that are too steep or slick due to the weather.
No matter why your golf cart accident happened, it is important to act quickly afterward to preserve the evidence and the scene. A professional injury attorney can help.
What to Do After a Golf Cart Accident
If you have been injured in a golf cart accident:
- Contact a trusted personal injury law firm like McGowan & Cecil, LLC in Laurel, Maryland as soon as possible. The most important thing to do upfront is to preserve all the evidence.
- We will send a Preservation of Evidence letter to the owners of any other golf carts or vehicles that were involved, as well as to any parties who may have videotaped your accident. We will want to have the golf cart and the accident scene inspected ASAP by an expert that we will hire.
- Delay only benefits the at-fault party and their insurance company. We need to get all the evidence preserved before it is destroyed or goes away.
Serious injuries are overwhelming and sometimes the last thing you are thinking of after a bad accident is hiring a lawyer. Don’t hire just any lawyer to get that step out of the way, though. Hire the right lawyer. You want one who limits their practice to only personal injury claims and will be on top of the case immediately, just as we do here at McGowan & Cecil, LLC in Laurel.
Dial (301) 761-2007 as soon as you can after a golf cart accident to connect with our attorneys.