CHARLESTON — In recent years, golf carts have been moving off of South Carolina’s links and onto the streets. These once humble vehicles now sometimes boast heavy-duty suspension, seating capacity for half-a-dozen people, state of the art speaker systems and other deluxe add-ons.
But as the low-speed electric vehicles leave golf courses in their rearview mirror, a larger debate is emerging about their place on the road, and the risk they pose to a particularly vulnerable group. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that golf cart-related child injuries are on the rise as the vehicles become more ubiquitous. And Charleston isn’t immune to the trend.
“We have seen a pretty large increase in (such injuries),” said Mary Beth Vassy, a pediatric trauma injury prevention coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina. “It is definitely a problem in our community.”
Vassy said pediatric golf cart injury cases more than quadrupled in recent years at MUSC — from four in 2019 to a recent high of 19 in 2023 and down slightly to 17 in 2024.
The statistical increase aside, those numbers seem relatively small. But Vassy notes that South Carolina doesn’t track pediatric golf cart injuries statewide, so the true extent of the issue isn’t known. She attributes the lack of data to a few factors, one of the most prominent being golf carts’ status as a relatively new form of transportation. (At least off the links.)
“This really is a new age problem,” Vassy said. “This is not something that has been a problem for very long.”
South Carolina’s laws for golf cart operation mirror many of the requirements for driving a standard vehicle. The carts must be insured and a valid driver’s license is required. On top of those, golf carts must stay within four miles of their listed addresses and are only allowed on roads with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less.
Only children under 12 are required to wear a seatbelt, per a state law enacted earlier this year. One 2025 study found that about half of all child and adolescent golf cart injuries were among children under 12, and an overwhelming majority, about 90 percent, were boys. Vassy notes that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not allowing children under six on a golf cart, as car seats can’t be properly fitted in the vehicles.
“The growing trend of golf cart use in residential areas, alongside the increased frequency of children driving and riding these vehicles, correlates with a concerning rise in both the number and variety of childhood golf cart injuries,” Dr. Theodore Ganley of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the study’s authors, wrote in a press release.
Vassy said head trauma is one of the more consistent golf cart-related pediatric injuries MUSC sees, and one of the most concerning. Head trauma in children can cause long-term and — in some cases — lifelong complications, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
From a transportation perspective, Katie Zimmerman sees golf carts as a tricky issue. She said a golf cart holding up traffic on a neighborhood road downtown could be viewed as a traffic-calming measure to keep people from ripping down narrow peninsula streets at high speeds.
“ There’s definitely a place for golf carts,” said Zimmerman, the executive director of the pedestrian and cyclist advocacy nonprofit Charleston Moves. But that place isn’t on mixed-use pedestrian paths, she said.
“ The problem is we’re now reaching a point where there’s too much pressure,” she added. “ We already are fighting for such a small amount of space to just be able to safely bicycle and walk and run. I like golf carts and low-speed vehicles. I think it’s a great sort of transitional use to get around. I just really prefer to see them on appropriate roadways.”
