Safety video released for golf cart drivers in The Villages

SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. — Officials in The Villages have released a safety video after a spike in crashes involving golf carts, the transportation of choice in the community. In some cases, the crashes were serious enough to send people to the hospital.

It's prompted several residents to make modifications to their golf carts, such as installing seat belts.

"The Villages is a golf cart community. You can access virtually anything by golf cart and some Villagers only have golf carts as their main means of transportation," Scott Wilder, with The Villages Community Watch, said.

There are about 50,000 golf carts on the roads in The Villages, according to officials there. In the past year there have been roughly 75 crashes, 12 of which were considered serious.

"We have experienced some accidents so we wanted to put out a video," Wilder said.

The safety video shows the wrong ways to drive golf carts, and urges drivers not to speed and to wear seat belts. It also encourages people not to text behind the wheel.

"If you don't have your seat belt on you, could be ejected," resident Barbara DelGrosso said.

Christopher Laufersky, with Villages Golf Cars, said they've been slammed with requests to have seat belts installed.

"We're about a week to 10 days out right now for someone to come in and make a reservation," Laufersky said.

Community officials said they're hoping the safety video can reduce the number of golf cart crashes.

WFTV