Adult golf cart injuries: A rising hazard off the course

Abstract

Objective

Golf carts are increasingly being used as a means of transportation for travel in neighborhoods, city areas, and unpaved surfaces. The catchment area of our regional trauma center has seen an increase in golf cart use for transportation. In fact, Georgia has recently changed legislation to support the growing need for more defined laws around golf cart use. This study aims to further evaluate injury and outcome patterns in the adult population of northeast Georgia.

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of adult golf cart injured patients from 2018 to 2022. We evaluated key demographics, such as age and gender, along with the length of stay, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and Injury Severity Score (ISS). Outcomes included the injury type.

Results

The results showed that orthopedic injuries were the most common (n = 24). Most patients were in the driver’s seat (76%). Ejection from the golf cart was common (82%). Geriatric patients, 65 and older, had an increased length of stay compared to patients under the age of 65 (10 vs 3.9 days).

Conclusion

Based on these results, future work includes injury prevention, increased awareness of injury patterns in prehospital and hospital settings, and communities updating their ordinances.

Keywords:

• Golf cart
• adult trauma
• personal transportation vehicle
• rural
• injury prevention

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethical approval

The manuscript was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board at WCG for a waiver of authorization for the use and disclosure of protected health information. IRB Study No.: 1346966.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.