[Talk Host]

A very nice woman who is an acquaintance of ours has macular degeneration which is causing enough vision loss that she has had to give up driving her car. However, she still drives her golf cart.

Any comments.

[Campbell soup]

Unfortunately, I believe she should also stop driving her Golf Cart.

With all the traffic in TV…when will it be required that you must have a valid drivers license to drive a Golf Cart? These are not toys.

Does anyone know how many accidents a year involve Golf Carts?

[sschuler1]

My grandmother had macular degeneration, and now my mother has it as well. It is a disease where you lose your front vision first, but retain your peripheral vision. You eventually lose that as well, and then are blind. My grandmother passed away before she became totally blind. (I remember watching my grandmother read the newspaper holding it over to the side.) My mother was diagnosed many years ago, and has taken vitamins and eye drops to significantly slow the progression down. In fact, her eye doctor has said that she has stopped the progression and hasn't lost any more vision in the last few years. The vitamins that my mother takes is called Ocuvite, and the eye drops are prescription. Maybe your friend can talk to her doctor about the eye drops?

As for driving, only your friend can know if she still retains enough eyesight to feel safe enough to drive. Obviously she doesn't feel comfortable enough to drive a car but the slower speeds of a golf cart still make her feel safe enough to get around. Most people won't risk their own life! I hope your friend is very careful and drives her cart responsibly!

[swrinfla]

A good Villager friend has had macular degeneration for something more than 30 years! He hasn't driven a car for many years and doesn't even read menus. Therefore, his wife is a patient angel!

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that he doesn't drive a golf cart, either. For that matter, I'm not sure they even have one!

Bottom line, as far as I'm concerned: if you give up driving your automobile, whether voluntarily or not, then you MUST also give up driving your golf cart. I'd feel even more strongly about this north of CR466, where the golf cart paths are so much narrower!

SWR

[Boomer]

Here on TOTV, every once in awhile, topics turn to the accidents and near-accidents there in TV. Golf carts and cars can be a dangerous and even deadly mix. There is a lot of confusion in the roundabouts it seems. And you are always going to have those drivers with short fuses and a sense of entitlement like everywhere else.

My guess is that there is another contributory factor to those driving problems in TV. And that factor may be in a larger percentage than it is elsewhere.

I know that many here have already faced those circumstances in life where the child must become the parent and the parent must become the child. There is nothing easy about doing that, from either perspective.

I wrote somewhere once in one of these threads about the real struggle we had with Mr. Boomer's dear father and the Oldsmobile keys.

Mr. Boomer, Sr. was strongly independent and his mind was sharp, but his body was betraying him. Throw in that old saying that we use in our family, "You can always tell a German, but you can't tell him much," and it will give you some idea of what we went through. And I know that so many of you can relate.

He had some vision problems that had developed that he neglected to tell anybody about right away.

When we found out, the first question was, "Why are you still driving?"

His answer to us, "I can see shapes."

Well, the vision problem was corrected and so he kept driving.

But then he developed peripheral neuropathy. That is a condition that diabetics can develop and it can cause them to lose feeling in their feet. There were times when he could not distinguish the brake pedal from the gas pedal. And there were accidents. One involved the wall between the garage and the house. No one was sitting on the family room couch at the time or the accident could have been deadly.

The car keys are a symbol of freedom, whether we are 16 or 85. When I first got mine, I found many reasons to carry that key ring in my hand, swinging it around for the world to see. (You know you did, too.)

To have to take the freedom of the car keys away is not fun.

And I am afraid that the perception of driving a golf cart is that you can just do it forever, whether you can feel your feet or see just should make no difference whatsoever. And my guess is that fewer adult kids think about or want to think about wrestling for the golf cart keys.

So please watch out for each other there in TV. Because my guess is that when the kids visit, they are not coming to wrestle for the keys. They are there to have fun, too.

Boomer

[SUNNYMARYANN]

Boomer this was so well put. It really makes me think that when the time comes to take away the keys I will have to be firm and when it comes time for my keys to be taken from me I hope I will remember your words.

My father-in-law, a retired hard headed Polish cop caused one big accident on the interstate outside Milwaukee by pulling onto the lane doing 40 mph and caused a flat bed truck to lose its load of concrete blocks all over the place. He was in his 80's and still driving. Thank heaven nobody was injured.

[villages07]

Back to your original question....

I do believe that with some conditions one can drive a golf cart safely where operating an automobile would not be safe. The pure speed and traffic difference between the two requires different skills and reflexes.

After my rotator cuff shoulder surgery, I did not feel comfortable driving an auto for 4 weeks but felt good with the golf cart after 2 weeks. I know of several people in TV who are capable and independent in their golf carts but who are not able to drive an auto.

So, I don't think it's an absolute that no car, no golf cart. But, like the decision on when to take away the car keys, there will be a similar challenge for that person or their relatives to decide when it is no longer safe to drive a golf cart.

[Muncle]

Not really surprising, but I agree with 07. The vast majority of cart traffic is much less complicated that car traffic, especially south of 466. If the vision was worsening, I'd likely avoid LSL.

[Raymond]

It is a safety issue. It is not a matter how comfortable she feel it is to protect other innocent people. I think about that my daughter walk somewhere and someone run her over because of a vision problem.

[Campbell soup]

I have found this article that pretty much saids it all. I agree with everyone that it has to be very difficult to have to give up the keys. However, it would be much more difficult to try and deal with the thought that you hurt some one....
If it were one on my friends ...I would try to very gentley convince them it was time to stop driving all together.


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