2 Elderly Men Injured as Car Hits Their Golf Cart

Driving an electric golf cart, 81-year-old Ford S. Barton picked up his 83-year-old friend to go to a nearby supermarket in Laguna Hills. To get there, Barton used the same streets he had used for the past 4 years. But this time he never arrived.

Barton’s cart was rear-ended by a 1983 Buick Regal on Thursday. The cart flew into a center divider and hit an olive tree. The two men were thrown from the cart and suffered concussions and cuts. The driver of the car was not cited, and an investigation is continuing, California Highway Patrol officials said.

At the Leisure World retirement community in Laguna Hills, where both men live, about 800 golf carts are registered. Residents use the carts to drive on public roads, often illegally, to run errands in nearby neighborhoods. Although statistics involving such accidents aren’t kept, CHP Officer Tina Brown said she knows of at least four accidents involving the carts in the past year.

Golf cart drivers “usually get hit because they are slow,” Brown said. “It’s usually older people driving them. They seem more prone to accidents.”

To be licensed to drive on public streets, golf carts must have seat belts, headlights and license plates. Even with licenses, the carts, which have a top speed of 15 m.p.h., can only be driven on roads with a speed limit of 25 m.p.h. or less under the California Vehicle Code.

The CHP rarely cites golf cart drivers but issues warnings instead, Officer Ken Daily said.

“It’s an informational thing,” he said. “Many of the drivers don’t know what the rules are.”

Recently, Daily stopped a woman in a golf cart on a street where the speed limit was more than 25 m.p.h.

“I had to sit down and plot out all the little streets she had to take,” he said.

Barton’s unlicensed golf cart was hit on El Toro Road, which has a 40 m.p.h. speed limit, about 11:45 a.m. The cart did not have seat belts.

Barton said Friday that he was driving carefully before he was hit.

“I looked back to see if the road was clear, and no cars were coming,” he said. “I waited until I was sure.”

He turned left and heard tires screeching. That’s all he remembers, he said, until he “woke up and saw a paramedic’s face.”

He was in good condition Friday, with 30 stitches in his head, at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. His friend, Charles A. Dawes, was in fair condition at the hospital.

Barton said he has driven the cart on public streets for 10 years. Before that, he drove on only private roads to a nearby supermarket. But when the market closed, he had to change his route to get to another supermarket.

Police have never stopped him, he said.

“I’ve had Highway Patrol cars pass me,” he said. “I assumed it was all right.”

At Leisure World, security director Dan Woodward said he sees two or three people a day using golf carts to drive on public streets. But because there are 14 gates at Leisure World, he could not estimate how many of its 22,000 residents use the golf carts outside the grounds. He said he knows of none licensed to travel on public roads.

The CHP, which patrols the Laguna Hills area, “never gets any complaints” about golf carts on public streets, Brown said.

Barton said he isn’t thinking about changing routes. “It’s the only way to get there.”