Golf cart with defunct brake lights almost got slammed
 

Yesterday, I was driving my car on northbound Morse and turned east onto Rio Grande. Traffic was moving steadily ahead of me.

All of a sudden I realized that the golf cart ahead of me was at a dead stop ahead of me and I narrowly missed hitting him. As he sat there, completely stopped, I saw no brake lights working on the cart.

When the oncoming lane cleared, he turned left onto Prado St. I was too stunned to make note of the license plate he had, but I did see when he turned left that he had no seat belt on.

A crash like that could have thrown him out onto the pavement and into the path of the oncoming cars. It's horrible to think about how I almost hit him.

PLEASE make sure your golf cart brake lights are working!!!!

Also learned that the carts that The Villages rents don't have seat belts or mirrors...not even sure if they turn signals. Since the seasonal visitors rent carts not sure how closely they monitor their carts. Did you follow the guy to let him know the lights weren't working? I think one of the things we can do as residents is help those that are unfamiliar with what the heck they are doing.

No, I didn't follow him. I couldn't turn left behind him because of the steady stream of oncoming cars that he dodged between to go left.

Plus, I was on my way to an appointment and had to focus on not coming up upon somebody else doing something even worse on the way.

Rio Grande is heavily travelled with the skinniest cart lanes in all of TV, and you have to watch the carts like a hawk. Thankfully I was doing just that.

I'll leave the following to the police! I shouldn't even explain THIS much. I gave a warning the best I can, here.

Geez.

I just rented a cart from The Villages Golf Carts for a few days for my sister-in-law. It had a mirror, turn signals, lights and a horn.

I agree.....
 

:ohdear: And have had all this equipment on their rentals for the over 10 years I have been here.

Slow down.... maybe this is being overblown.
 

"All of a sudden I realized that the golf cart ahead of me was at a dead stop" - it's your job when driving to know what is going on in front of you!

"I saw no brake lights working " you don't know if they worked or not?

"I narrowly missed hitting him" "It's horrible to think about how I almost hit him"- You scare me! Please tell me what this guy did wrong. He was sitting in the East bound lane waiting to turn North on Lisbon. Sounds correct to me. Maybe I am missing something. If so, I'm sorry.

IMHO - most MVAs in TV are not caused by equipment malfunction, but by driver error or someone being in a hurry. :shocked:

You make a lot of accusations about me when I was driving with the speed of traffic and within the speed limit there.

And you were not there.


I stand by what I said, about what I SAW. He was sitting there at a dead stop, with me stopped behind him once I realized he was stopped, and "I SAW NO BRAKE LIGHTS WORKING".

Is it possible to alert people here to a malfunction they might have, without shooting the messenger??

It would have been your fault if you hit him
I'm no way taking either side in this
When golf cart come to stop due to the design of their mechanics no need to have break pedal depressed after the initial stop resulting no break light .

Calm down
 

What "accusations"? chilout

I didn't try to divest myself from "fault" in case of an accidental rear end crash with the guy!

I wrote to advise people that their brake lights might not be working and they should check them, with the last sentence being this:

"PLEASE make sure your golf cart brake lights are working!!!!"

And by the way, brake lights are on these "Villages-ready" carts for a reason. They drive in automobile streets and not just on a golf course.

Not totally relevant to this thread, for which I apologise, but some new carts have a throttle that needs to be depressed to keep moving. They do not coast, and if you raise the throttle it acts like a brake.

I assume that the brake lights are triggered by doing this, but what if you raise it slowly so that you just slow to a stop? Does anyone have one of these carts and know the answer?

Thank you

The reason for brake lights is to warn people behind them that they are stopped.

Sunny was telling us that some carts have no brake lights and to be VERY careful. Some carts have front lights out too and drive at night.

Listen to this smart woman.

Sadly, many of the older electric carts don't have brake lights. Found this out when I was following a neighbor and almost rammed her. She did not even know she had no lights until then. She talked to her mechanic and he installed working lights for about $200 if I remember correctly.

Thank you. The one I came up behind was not really old.

Regardless, brake lights are needed to alert drivers behind that you're slowing down and coming to a halt in busy traffic.

You need to keep your foot on the brake for the brake lights to stay on. Since a golf cart does not have an engine or motor (both gas and electric carts) when the cart is stopped it is not necessary to hold your foot on the pedal so that the cart doesn't creep forward. This is the most likely scenario that occurred here. This is kind of the same situation that occurs with a car equipped with a standard shift. Instead of holding your foot on the brake sometimes one lets the clutch in and out if the car creeps a bit.