My wife and I were almost killed tonight driving a golf cart, how common is this?
 

My wife and I just moved to The Villages last Tuesday. We’ve really enjoyed having dinner and meeting new friends at LSL town center; and have been considering living here full-time. We’ve also enjoyed driving around in the golf cart. Usually we take the tunnel by Sweetbay to get to LSL from The Village of Caroline. Driving that way, we’ve noticed that the golf cart path that usually leads directly to LSL road is blocked off; making you drive through the Sweetbay parking lot then taking Old Camp road (we think that’s what it’s called as we are still getting used to the street names) to get to LSL road.
Well, tonight we went to LSL to meet with some friends for dinner and we took the same path to get back home. Luckily we did not have any drinks and we were not in a hurry driving back home. As we were driving on Old Camp road to get to the Sweetbay parking lot, I noticed a white car that looked like it was coming up to us really fast on our right side -- it was speeding through the parking lot behind Bravo Pizza (the restaurant located on the corner of Old Camp road and Lake Sumter Landing road). Behind Bravo Pizza is a parking lot. There used to be an exit from that same parking lot that exited onto Old Camp road. However, the exit was blocked off and a curb was added, along with several bushes and some trees.
While we were driving down Old Camp road all of a sudden that same white car came crashing over the curb, through the hedges and trees and was flying 3-4 feet high in the air just a few feet in front of us where we would have been in another 3 seconds… we would have been decapitated! It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to react!
We called the police immediately. The firemen and policemen did a good job blocking off the area and getting the area secure pretty quickly. The car ran into some shrubs and a policeman said that the driver also ran into a Transformer and broke a gas line. The police officer said that he smelled gas and was concerned that they may have to evacuate the area due to the gas.
With this near death accident, my wife is scared about living here and is thinking that we should put the house up for sale and move.
:22yikes:
It is by the grace of G-D that we are still alive. There were also 6 teenagers walking on the sidewalk who also were literally seconds from being killed.
I am wondering:
How safe is it really to drive golf carts at night, in the squares with some people who may be too old to drive, and people drinking?
Are we getting to hear all these events or are they being covered up to protect the image of The Villages?
I would appreciate your comments and feedback. Especially from those of you who have been here for some time and have more insight into the area and maybe have some inside scoop.

This is an extremely horrifying experience and I am so sorry that you and your wife had to deal with this. As you said, thank the Lord that it turned out as it did.

I don't believe that your experience had anything to do with it being in The Villages...a coincidence. Unfortunately this sort of thing can happen anywhere. You just happen to witness it. I certainly hope that when you have both thought this through, you will realize that it's not a common occurrence.. I believe that the majority of villagers drive golf carts and cars cautiously, but accidents do happen.

Again, so sorry that this happened to you. Take a deal breath, and be thankful that you are unharmed.

Wow! So glad you & the teens are safe. It was an ACCIDENT, could have happened anywhere. I, too, am so sorry it happened so soon after moving here. I have lived here 5 years and have never come close to being injured. You did the right thing--you were aware of your surroundings & noticed this car was not acting right. You have to be a defensive driver in the cart just like in your car. Please don't make a hasty decision about moving; you have so much to experience here. :wave:

The fact is, and one ignored by many here that driving a golf cart can be risky. Accidents are called accidents for an obvious reason. When I first moved here some guy decided to drive his Lexus convertible on the golf cart path and was headed for me and three other carts behind me just before sunrise. We all took to the grass. I called the police who so much told me they had seen this before and so ignored my plea for finding this nut job. Well after 6 years i find that it has occured a number of times. I have eye witnessed two of those accounts thus far.

Carts were made for the golf course. I only use my golf cart when I play golf for that reason. Reducing my driving time theortically reduces my chances of getting in an accident

So anyone going in excess of 20 mph, driving a street legal cart is increasing risks for other residents and themselves.

We were coming home last night from LSL around 9:30 as we always wait for the traffic to die down. We were stopped at the STOP sign on Canal getting ready to cross Old Camp Road to the golf cart path (Stillwater) when I noticed a white car speeding as he approached the Stop sign. I stayed where I was as the car skidded to a stop! Whew! I am always wary driving my golf cart especially at night and especially coming home from the Squares. Always be alert and don't take for granted that others driving in cars see golf carts as motorized vehicles sharing the road. Everyone be careful out there! Driving my golf cart is one of my favorite things to do.

See what I mean...Its eventually goin happen that scare that almost that vulnerability because you are driving a vehicle that leaves you exposed. It is what it is

Retirement Community
 

There are a lot of people in TV that do not belong behind the wheel of a car because their driving skills have deteriorated. And there a lot of people who do not belong behind the wheel of a Golf Cart because they think they are driving at the Daytona 500. Unfortunately it is the "nature of the beast" when you live in TV. When we first moved here I was planing on having 2 Golf Carts. Now I am thinking 1 cart and a TANK. But is is still the best retirement community we looked at.:police:

You do have to be cautious!! Just because this is retirement community doesn't mean you won't see 20 yr olds driving around it. What really gets to me though is when you see the 20 yr olds in the golf carts fooling around as if they are toys!! Grandparents need to be especially careful giving their grandchildren golf carts. They are vehicles and can kill and injure many. Be cautious as you were. Thank God your both fine!! But golf cart accidents are a concern especially as our population has increased so much. Keep your eye on the POA paper for the real statistics. The Sun won't reveal the truth.

For the number of people on the road in and around the Villages, bad accidents like this one are rather rare. Drunken driving, medical problems like strokes, poor eyesight, and bad decisions do play a part in the accidents we have around here too.

What happened with the driver of the white car? Sounds like some preteen on a joyride?? Fortunately that kind of stuff happens very rarely in the Villages because of the limitations on kids living here.

I always drive defensively though whether in a car or golf cart. Even while walking I watch out for carts and or cars that have a driver who might have some kind of medical problem.

The Villages Daily Sun does carry news on bad accidents in or near the Villages. They do not highlight them though like some newspapers. Another poster is right though that you would need other sources to get statistics on golf cart and car accident in or near the Villages. The Daily Commercial of Leesburg often has this kind of news. http://www.dailycommercial.com/ The Ocala Star-Banner also will give you news-- http://www.ocala.com/

I agree with all of the previous posters. You have to drive defensively when zooming around in your golf cart. This is a senior community and with diminished vision, hearing and reaction times as a result of age mixed in with meds and alcohol, and you have a potential problem. A friend of mine who has lived in TV for 9 years told me of an incident where a person was stuck inside a golf cart tunnel by driving their car in there a number of years ago. Then you have all the wanna-be NASCAR drivers who soup up their non-street-legal golfcarts to do well in excess of 20 miles per hour that always seem to be running late, sometimes passing on blind curves with limited sight-line. You see it all, and have to drive defensively. Glad that you and all nearby were not harmed by someone's stupidity!!

Thank goodness you are safe and the worst case scenario did not occur.

On our recent visit in October and November 2011, I felt everyone was speeding. I also thought I had read in the paper they were going to lower the speed limit. My hubby said everyone has to go fast to keep up the flow of traffic.......which was fast.

There is no protection for the driver and passenger in a golf cart.

Perhaps if one just stays in their neighborhood, on their own golf course, with the golf cart and uses the automobile to go to the retaurants, such as we did, they'd be wiser. At least you'd have airbags if you got hit.

We were in the northwest quadrant and it was peaceful and quiet.
However, when we'd get on Buena Vista and the other highway type roads it was quite "speedy".......all of the "466" type roads were quick moving.............

I had pictured The Villages to be very slow going with the golf carts just meandering around..........but even on the designated paths, some were really speeding along..........I'm certain they were experienced golf cart drivers but for someone more pokey who might get in their way, OUCH.

Just glad you were o.k., but shaken.

We just had to use golf carts again for a commencement up north and all I can say is that it was a WILD RIDE......on hilly terrain. Personally, I'm not fond of them............but being a golf cart community is why so many people DO LOVE THE VILLAGES.......

All words of wisdom, for sure. Thanks for posting.

That's exactly how I feel. Fine for the golf course; not so fine for general transportation.

My wife and I passed a grandmother in a cart by her self driving with her right hand and holding a baby, about 6 months old, on her lap with her left arm. I'm glad the white car was a little further north.

Everyone said it better than I could. I am glad you weren't harmed and wonder about the driver and why he was driving so dangerously?

Will look in The Sun tomorrow.

Lots of risks in a golf cart
 

We love our golf car and golf car rides. Intentionally, we don't take our cart to the squares....too busy...to may people. We stay on the cart paths when we take a ride or ride in the early evening when there's less traffic or early morning. I see people leave from a bar in LSL with their drinks in their hands and get into a cart. Not a risk I'm willing to take being down there in a cart with all of the drinking going on.

So glad your timing was perfect in avoiding the accident and that you are all right. A very scary situation for sure. please stay safe.

DoctorA, so glad you and your wife were able to avoid a potentially dangerous situation last night. I hope you take some time to let your nerves settle before making a hasty decision about leaving TV.

I am so sorry you had this experience.

Accidents can happen anywhere. My experience has taught me to drive defensively as accidents can be avoided by being careful as you were. I think in a couple of weeks from now most of the trauma from this near accident will subside and you can start to enjoy TV again. It has too many great things to let this stop you from living the good life.

Take deep breaths and hang in there.

DoctorA

It Happens - but planes fall out of the sky too.

Wait till FEB/MAR. The problems are multiplied by the influx of our seasonal residents, snowbird & renters.

Now in the summer you also have alot of visitors.

All these people that come from up north are in the hustle & bustle frame of mind and it's difficult to slow them down.


YOU MUST BE AWARE AND DRIVE VERY DEFENSIVELY.

I've lived here for 7 years and drive golf cart EVERY day. Only drive a car about 1 or 2 days a month. I've been lucky but I have seen accidents.

"let's be carefull out there"

rate of accidents
 

I think it safe to say that if living and driving (autos or carts) your life is in danger at least once a week. What bugs me most are those drivers that do the unusual like stopping in main traffic to let someone at a stop sign proceed. Why these morons want to become traffic directors is beyond me.

Troubling
 

Since we are closing on the 16th of our future home, it is troubling that so many visitors and guests from adjacent communities outside TV treat it as some sort of resort area and forget this is people's hometown! My cart is being custom built with steel bumpers and a 50 caliber gun turret. The speed is set at 19 mph, and a big sign on the back saying, "Go ahead, make my day. I double dog dare you!! :D Have a nice day."

Bad Drivers
 

Bad drivers come in all ages, not just the older population. Like I said before, try driving the speed limit on any of the streets (or highways) and see how often you get passed and get dirty looks in the process. This is especially true on the main roads and the roundabouts. What part of the posted 20mph through roundabouts or the 35mph on streets like Buena Vista do they not understand?

My experience has been that it has not been the older population or the very young but the middle group. To point fingers at people from "up north" is not fair, either. Drivers unwilling to obey traffic laws and drive safely come from all areas.

All drivers just need to obey the laws, drive courteously, pay attention to the other traffice, and learn to leave earlier. Leave the speed for the speedways.

Seems to me this accident has everything to do with a car and nothing to do with riding around day or night in your golf cart. You could have been walking near the accident, as you indicated some were, just as easily as making your way home in a golf cart. We can't stop "living" just because bad accidents happen, otherwise, we would never leave our homes and interact with other people. You witnessed a bad accident......not your fault. Hopefully, the folks in the white car are also okay. I'm sure they are happy you or others were not hurt.

HORRORS!!!! it sounds as though this driver was attempting to run from some sort of crime.
Don't leave. This is not the norm here and, yes, you must demonstrate defensive driving; one could not have prepared for this kind of off the wall situations.
This could well have happened on ANY STREET, USA. It just so happens it occurred here in T.V.
C'mon. You folks have earned your trip to Paradise. Don't give up on TV so soon.
Glad you are well and that the teens are as well.
Peace

Even if I am a wannabee, that seems very unsafe to me. When I was in TV last month, I saw a golf cart driving near the square in LSL which had a baby (probably about 6 months old) sitting on the lap of an adult female passenger (possibly the baby's grandmother) in the front seat of a 4 seat golf cart. I was wondering about the safety of that.

Excellent post by 2BNTV. I am also glad you and your wife are OK. Take a few days or a couple of weeks to think things over. The Village of Caroline is such a great location (but then all locations in TV are great).

jgbama -- The next time I am in TV driving through the Village of Rio Grande, I will be sure to drive very carefully!

DoctorA - Sorry to hear about your close call. THAT would certainly raise your blood pressure a bit!

As 2B already stated, accidents can happen anywhere. You could've been in your car, on a bicycle, walking.......or in your golf cart, as you experienced. From the sounds of your description of the accident that occurred, you'd have been in a serious state if you'd have been involved, regardless of what you were in/on.....though "in your car" would've probably caused you the least harm.

Don't let the experience scare you away from TV - such things can happen anywhere. Glad to know you weren't hurt!

Bill :)

It sounds as if your wife is traumatized, and rightly so. It will take time for her/you to get over that and you'll probably not want to go anywhere near that accident site.

This was truly a freak accident that could have happened in your hometown, too, but you would have been driving an automobile that would have been safer and more protective of you.

Rather than putting up the house for sale and moving, I'd say give it some time without driving the golf cart. Use only a nice, safe, full-size car in TV for awhile.

Nobody has to drive a golf cart in TV.....in fact, I know several people who do not own one. They use their car and that is fine.

I agree with your first paragraph..........etc.

I think a previous poster said it all when they mentioned people being on meds.........lots of folks are "over medicated" these days........
Many times their judgement is just off.

We've crisscrossed our country numerous times, too numerous to count, and the traffic seems to have gotten worse. I'd say the past decade or so has seen a decline in polite drivers.

However, without mentioning states.........it does seem to be the closer to the cities, the crazier they drive.

Smaller town drivers seem to be more conservative.

City drivers seem to be on auto pilot. Often times they are rude.
It's like the other cars don't even exist. Our relatives down in the "cities" which could be N.Y. or Boston, etc. or Washington D.C. all call them the "crazies"......so it's mainly city drivers. It must be stressful.

I would think, to them, The Villages is a light traffic area.
To me , it seemed heavy traffic and it wasn't yet "high season".

Previously, when traveling, we'd always try to leave our hotels early in the morning "before commuter rush hour" to escape the lunatics on the roads........and stop earlier, again to avoid the evening rush.

Driving west , it was a pleasure to go through the farmlands of the Great Plains......long stretches of empty roads.

Truck drivers , for the most part, were super polite.........but 3 years ago, we noticed they had become super aggressive drivers.......changing lanes RIGHT UP CLOSE TO PASSENGER VEHICLES.....with no turn signals.
Maybe it was the "new generation" of truck drivers....the younger set.

I realize trucks are not golf carts....but everyone seems to be in a HURRY these days........and not thinking of the cars next to them.

Everyone just stay safe. For ourselves, we prefer the "country" roads off the beaten path.......it's a lot more relaxing to go slower and enjoy the scenery. Thankfully, we do not have a lot of traffic up here at all.

Again, stay safe............

I had a close call today in my golf cart. I was travelling thru the parking lot at Saddlebrook and was going to make a left turn to go into the tunnel. A pickup truck was coming from Buena Vista and was entering the parking lot. I didn't see him as there are bushes in the way along the side of the road. I started to make a left turn to go into the cart path into the tunnel when this pickup who was travelling in a right turn and I almost collided. I don't go this way much but this is a dangerous "intersection". Just wanted to warn people to be careful here.

Also today as we were returning from golf on Morse on the opposite side of the road there was a golf cart being driven by a minor who looked 10 years old. She definately was not 14. In the cart were her grandparents. Another example of grandparents who have no sense.

John

Send them up to Rio Grande in a couple of months to see me! :1rotfl::1rotfl:

I'm not making lite of this folks. It drives me crazy too, but we still L-O-V-E TV and don't want to be any other place (this side of heaven). I'm afraid it will only get worse as the population blooms to 105,000. That means defensive driving is the order of the day in both a car and golf cart.

John, I never understand why they plant shrubs so close to the corners, etc. and not keep them trimmed short so you can see over them. Having to pull halfway out to see oncoming traffic is down right scary. That happens, by the way, in every city. Glad you weren't involved in an accident.

During my LSV I wanted to see if a cart, roundabouts, traffic etc. would be a problem for me. I didn't get any bad feelings about it. I'm a cautious driver but accidents can happen anywhere. There was a lady killed here locally when a tree fell on her while she was walking on a green way walking path. Wrong place, wrong time.

I agree with all of the posts. Just beware there are a lot of crazy drivers no matter where you live. We have lived here for 6 years and are still alive and well. ha! Don't let the one incident scare you from living in Paradise.

A new day, and some sunshine to greet us. My wife is still upset but I am feeling better. I will have her read your responces. Thank you all for the good wishes. It is nice to know that people we don't even know care.

For more info, the driver was an older ( real old ) man who was not drinking. He told the police he had his foot on the brake and the car sped up. The officer noted that there were no skid marks and thus the driver must have mistaken the gas pedal for the brake. The good news is he also was OK, but he did look a bit dazed.

I hope my wife gets over this, as I like it here. As many of you noted anything can happen anywhere. When your time is up, it's up. But I need more time to check out all 2000 clubs here so I don't want to go yet. :thumbup:

Thank God up in heaven that everyone is alright. Wheeww. I bet it scared the bejebbies out of you all. The golf cart had nothing to do with the accident. Who knows, if you'd been in the car with the radio on and talking with the windows up, God forbid, you could both be dead now.

When you live in a retirement community with 80,000 plus people, the majority of whom are seniors, you had better drive very defensively. Accidents are going to happen.

87,000 people, most of whom are over 60 years of age with various physical problems - I think you can expect more of the same.

Thank goodness you and your wife and teens were not hurt. May I ask what condition was the driver of the car in?

I'm glad to hear that you're both OK.

We love the golf-cart lifestyle. However we use our cart primarily for golf and trips to local shopping during the daytime. (And on three occasions we've seen cars driving on the golf cart path!) We rarely drive our golf cart in the area of the Squares after dusk.

I'm glad to hear your feeling better and in a couple of weeks, maybe your wife will too. I know I stayed upset for a while when I had an accident.

This too shall pass is a mottto I believe in.

Hang in there. It will get better.

True. Everyone needs to pay attention when they drive...regardless of where they are driving. But when you are in a retirement community the size of TV, you need to be vigilant in your careful driving.