flickr/ Fred Jala Golf Cart image:40991:2::0

Golf carts are being seen, not only on the course but in national parks, on college campuses and gated communities. Unfortunately this rise in the golf carts popularity has come with a price; an increase in the number of injures that are golf cart connected.

A recent study shows that golf carts are being put to uses for which they were never intended and they are now faster than they once were. They are being used to transport people from place to place rather than form hole to hole and children are among the passengers.

David S. Watson from Ohio State University is the lead author of a study that is published in e July issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine and he states that from 1990 to 2006, the injury rate had doubled

Between those years the researchers counted injuries in almost 150,000 people ages 2 months to 96 years.

Falls caused many of the injuries were caused by falls and a fall can happen at speeds as low as 11 miles per hour when the cart turns. The newer carts have been clocked at 25 m.p.h. and often lack safety equipment.

“The majority of them that are out there in use do not have seat belts,” a co-author of the study, Tracy J. Mehan, a researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The carts do not have front brakes and this lack makes the vehicles prone to fishtail. People also get hurt when the carts turn over.