Dear Waterways property owners,
We care about the safety for you, your guests and your children. We ask that any child under age on a golf cart be accompanied by a licensed adult. We ask that parents keep a watchful eye on children while playing outside. Safety first!
For Texas rules on golf carts and children go to your website FAQ. www.waterwaysia.com
Thank you for your cooperation.
Waterways Board of Directors
Golf Carts and Children
In Texas you must have a regular driving license to drive a golf cart on public property. Therefore, the driver has to be at least sixteen years of age.
A golf cart may be legally driven on streets with a speed limit of no more than 35 miles per hour as long as it is properly registered and built to attain a maximum speed of no more than 25 miles per hour. The cart must also have a "Slow Moving" decal prominently displayed and be insured, which as of 2009 means minimum liability limits of $25,000 of bodily injury per person, $50,000 combined bodily injury limit for all occupants of a vehicle, and $25,000 to repair property damage caused by the insured.
Golf carts are permitted to be driven off-road without needing to be registered. However, they must be operated on or within two miles of a golf course and only during daylight hours. They also may be driven on some beaches and in areas approved for their use by city or county ordinances, such as a community for senior citizens
Here are the facts: Thousands of children under the age of 16 have been injured or killed on golf carts. These injuries consisted of broken bones, head injuries, bodily injuries, and death. A golf cart is a heavy piece of machinery that can injury a person especially a child. Golf carts today are heavier, faster, taller and they can tip over, and that’s what happen to Luke a 9-year-old in Lubbock, Texas who sustained three head injuries and can neither speak or walk. Parents need to teach your children safety with the golf cart and they need to be supervised. It is not a toy.
American Academy of Pediatric state that golf carts lack certain safety features. “They don’t have a roll-over structure and often parents allow their children to treat them as toys and not a real vehicle that could be dangerous.”
The most significant finding was that children in golf cart accidents appear to be especially susceptible to head trauma, with concussions affecting 27 percent of children, and 44 percent walking away with skull fractures. There has been one fatality.
