Part 1: Golf Cart Crashes Are Rare. Injuries Aren’t

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series from The Citizen examining golf cart safety in Peachtree City and what the city’s decades of experience may teach Fayette County as plans move forward to expand a connected path network beyond its borders.

It took an outsider to ask the question.

While visiting Peachtree City, a businessman watched a family ride by in a golf cart. A mother cradled a baby in the front passenger seat. Two children sat in the back. None appeared to be restrained.

He turned to a local resident with a simple question.

“That’s not legal, is it?”

The answer surprised them both.

In Peachtree City, where golf carts have become as much a part of daily life as cars, there is no requirement that passengers—including children or infants riding with an adult—be restrained. The only local occupant-restraint ordinance prohibits a driver from operating a golf cart with a child sitting in his or her lap.

For longtime residents, scenes like the one that startled the visitor have become commonplace. But they also raise a question: Have residents become so accustomed to golf cart travel that they’ve stopped questioning some of its risks?

The numbers suggest the question deserves attention.

According to Capt. Jamie McDowell, who oversees the Peachtree City Police Department’s Traffic Division, golf cart crashes account for only a small fraction of the city’s traffic accidents. Most trips on Peachtree City’s more than 100 miles of multi-use paths end without incident. But when crashes do happen, they are far more likely to leave someone injured than a crash involving a passenger vehicle.

From 2021 through the first half of 2026, roughly 41 percent of reported golf cart crashes resulted in injuries. During that same period, about 8 percent of passenger vehicle crashes resulted in injuries.

McDowell said the difference is largely due to the nature of the vehicles themselves. Unlike automobiles, golf carts have no enclosed passenger compartment, no airbags and few built-in occupant protection systems. Occupants can easily be thrown from a cart or strike the pavement during a crash.

Those statistics are not abstract for Rich Overholt.

More than 20 years ago, Overholt’s then-wife was riding home in a golf cart after lunch with family when, while rounding a curve near First Presbyterian Church in Peachtree City, she somehow fell from the passenger seat and struck her head on the pavement.

She never regained consciousness.

“No one really knows exactly what happened,” Overholt said. “She just hit her head the wrong way.”

Their son was just 3 years old.

In an instant, Overholt found himself raising his young son alone after the loss of his wife. He credits his former employer, Norfolk Southern, with giving him the flexibility to balance work with the responsibilities of single parenthood, but says the accident permanently changed the course of their family’s life.

“It’s a completely life-changing event,” he said. “It’s a burden to put the seat belt on all the time, but if you’re that one person … it sure would have been nice if she’d had a seat belt on.”

Even so, Overholt stops short of saying the city should require seat belts.

Instead, he hopes people simply recognize that golf carts deserve the same respect they give automobiles.

Current city law offers little guidance on passenger restraints.

Lt. Chris Hyatt said the only occupant-restraint ordinance prohibits drivers from operating a golf cart with a child sitting in their lap. Beyond that, there are no city ordinances requiring seat belts, child safety seats or passenger restraints of any kind.

Hyatt said the higher injury rate compared with automobile crashes is not surprising.

Modern passenger vehicles are engineered with crumple zones, airbags and sophisticated restraint systems designed to protect occupants. Golf carts offer few of those protections. In significant crashes, riders are much more likely to be thrown from the vehicle or strike the ground, leading to injuries even in relatively low-speed collisions.

While no law requires seat belts on most golf carts, safety equipment is widely available.

Lee Woodruff, general manager of Golf Rider in Peachtree City, said virtually any golf cart can be retrofitted with lap belts regardless of manufacturer. The dealership installs lap belts for about $75 per seating position, including parts and labor.

“We recommend them,” Woodruff said. “Every cart we sell now, we ask customers if they want seat belts.”

Still, because they are not required, many customers decline.

“The first thing they ask is, ‘Are they required?'” Woodruff said. “When I say no, they usually decide they’ll do it later.”

For now, Peachtree City’s approach relies largely on personal responsibility. Parents decide how to secure their children. Drivers decide whether to install seat belts. Riders decide whether to use them. The city requires none of it.

Whether that approach is enough is a question with no easy answer. Some may conclude those decisions belong entirely with families. Others may argue government has a responsibility to require additional safety measures, particularly for children. Still others may believe education and greater awareness—not additional laws—offer the best path to reducing injuries.

As Fayette County prepares to build on the transportation model Peachtree City pioneered decades ago through Fayette Forward’s ConnectFayette initiative, one thing is already clear: the conversation about golf cart safety is no longer just Peachtree City’s conversation.