A recent study confirmed that golf cart crashes involving children can result in serious injuries. The researchers involved in the studies found that children as young as nine were driving golf carts. They often did not wear seatbelts. In a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, between 1990 and 2006, 1/3 of all golf cart injuries involved children under the age of 16. In another study, colleagues at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee analyzed golf cart-related injuries between 2008 and 2016. During that period, 40 children were treated for golf cart-related injuries. 85% of the children were between the ages of 5 and 14.
Local 10 News reports that a 17-year-old girl has succumbed to a brain injury she received in a golf cart accident.
17-year-old Ashely Pereira was in a golf cart with friends last Sunday. As they passed over the I-75 overpass on Dykes Road, the vehicle flipped. Pereira was ejected and suffered from a traumatic brain injury.
She was airlifted to Memorial Regional Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries last Wednesday.
Residents in the communities of Davies and Southwest Ranches say that children operating golf carts is a common occurrence. Both residents and law enforcement officials state that accidents are also a common occurrence.
One resident told media that they have seen kids pack in with 6, 7, or 8 people to a single cart.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident.