Peachtree City will be getting

a second legal opinion on whether state law requires golf cart drivers

to have a state driver's license, which would exclude youngsters currently

allowed to drive the carts under a city ordinance.

For now, police aren't enforcing

the restrictions, which were brought on by a recent appeals court ruling

that states anyone driving a golf cart on a "public highway"

must have a valid driver's license to do so. The law defines "public

highway" as any publicly improved way, which applies to roads, streets

and golf cart paths, according to Solicitor General Steve Harris.

City Attorney Ted Meeker has

asked Attorney General Thurbert Baker for an opinion on the matter, said

Police Chief James Murray. Until that opinion comes back, police officers

won't be "enforcing" the restrictions because of some confusion

about how the state law is applied, Murray said.

"We're just waiting to

see what the final word is," Murray said. He recommends, however,

that citizens abide by the recent interpretation of the state law.

The recent ruling shouldn't

surprise Peachtree City officials, who were warned about the ramifications

of the case by Harris before the original case went to trial in January

2002.

Harris said he notified Rick

Lindsey, who was city attorney at the time, "so they could join in

on any appeal to the Court of Appeals."

Lindsey said he had warned

the city council on several occasions that there was a possibility the

appeals court could rule that driver's licenses are required to drive

a golf cart.

"We knew that was a risk,"

Lindsey said. "We've known it for years. ... Hopefully the legislature

will address it because that's where it's got to come from."

Harris noted that his office

has prosecuted many other traffic cases involving golf carts, including

DUIs and suspended licenses, which were involved in the case that was

appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Meeker was unavailable for

comment.

Even if Baker decides a license

is required to drive a golf cart, citizens would be given a period of

time to comply and the city will do an information blitz to get the word

out, Murray said.

And if licenses are necessary,

Murray said he expects most citizens will abide by the decision.

"What we actually have

here is voluntary compliance," Murray said. "I have great faith

that 97 to 98 percent of the citizens will comply with the law."

The department also doesn't

have the manpower to saturate the cart paths with officers to enforce

the age restrictions, Murray noted.

"We have much bigger fish

to fry answering alarms and responding to accidents with injuries,"

Murray said. "It would be a serious drain on our manpower to enforce

it all the time."

An officer who stops a child

for violating age restrictions could be tied up for two or more hours

since the child can't be allowed to drive the golf cart home and a parent

or guardian must be summoned to the scene to pick up the child and/or

golf cart, Murray said.

The department conducts some

surveillance on the golf cart paths at night to curtail vandalism, Murray

noted.

Murray said a license requirement

for golf cart drivers would hurt senior citizens and handicapped residents

who depend on golf carts as their sole mode of transportation around town.

"It would be an extreme

hardship on them," Murray said. One solution would be to create a

separate tier of licensing just for golf carts, the chief suggested.

Ruling riles teens

Katie Costello, 15, and Casey

Langbehn, also 15, both attend McIntosh High School and planned to drive

their family's cart to school. Langbehn said he planned to do so even

after he turned 16 because parking spaces will be at a premium thanks

to the expansion of the school's gym.

"All last year I drove

to school," Langbehn said.

Costello said her parents bought

a golf cart so they could put off buying her a full-fledged car.

Most of the students who used

the new golf-cart parking lot at McIntosh last year were 15 years old,

Costello said. The parking lot was created to relieve overcrowding on

a nearby street after the Peachtree City City Council decided to allow

15-year-olds with valid driver's license learners permits to drive golf

carts unchaperoned.

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