There were injuries to two

small children that necessitated their being taken to local hospitals

for emergency treatment. One, Josh Slepicka, an 8-year-old, was correctly

depicted as a hero for his actions in refusing treatment until his 5-year-old

sister was attended to by the police officer and emergency service personnel

at the accident scene.

The fact that such an accident

occurred did not surprise me at all. In fact, a couple of months ago I

happened upon a golf cart accident in which there was an injury to an

adult and collision damage done to the golf carts involved.

I ride my golf cart several

times a week to either Planterra Ridge, Braelinn, or Flat Creek golf clubs.

There are several spots along these trips where visibility around turns

is definitely a problem and is a prime factor in these accidents. These

paths are narrow, and carts swerve over to the other side of the path

while making the turns.

Unfortunately, there are some

cart drivers that don't make an effort to slow down or take precautions

when making these turns. Some time ago I decided to be a defensive driver

when these turns come up. Yes, sometimes I catch myself in being the culprit,

but, for the most part I give ground to the oncoming vehicle when at these

blind curves.

Widening these types of turn

areas would go a long way toward improving the safety factor at these

spots. However, the city's cart path repair budget does not currently

provide the necessary funds to fix these problems throughout the community.

However, a temporary solution

could be the drawing of orange paint lines in the middle of those paths

that are determined to be dangerous due to visibility or being too narrow.

These lines should start far enough in front of the curved danger area

in order to allow the cart driver to be made aware that there is a dangerous

section of the path ahead. Maybe that would catch his attention, and the

driver would slow down, or at least keep on his or her side of the path.

The 70 to 80 miles of cart

paths are a unique part of the Peachtree City story. It was mentioned

in the Epps article that there were 9,000 golf carts in the city. There

should be adequate funding provided by the city to see that these cart

paths are safe.

I would imagine that these

9,000 carts, most of which are electric powered, have some measurable

value towards our responsibility in cutting vehicle pollution emissions

in the city and the county.

Couldn't our city, or Fayette

County, get some golf cart path maintenance funding from the EPA or DOT

for our substituting the golf carts for the cars that would ordinarily

be making these trips to the golf courses and other destinations within

the city?

Marv Prellberg

Peachtree City

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