Hospitality Focus on Safety: Golf Cart Safety
Definition:
Golf cart safety is a major concern for any golf course or country club as there are reported over 15,000 golf cart-related injuries per year, a third of these involving children.
Potential Exposures:
- Improper
or non-existent routine inspections
- Improper
storage and charging
- Ignoring
any cart deficiencies
- Untrained
or intoxicated drivers
Prevention:
- Perform
routine inspections of all carts daily.
- Do
not allow the use of the cart if any deficiencies are found until repairs have
been made a qualified technician.
- Use
only the approved charging station for recharging the battery.
- Make
sure there are no flammable items near the charging stations.
- Disconnect
the charger before starting the cart.
- Use
of any cart should be restricted to staff and guests with a valid driver’s license.
- Label
each cart and follow full checkout procedures.
- Review
safety guidelines with any driver before they use the cart.
- Stock
each cart with safety equipment, such as flags and lights.
In the event of a golf cart accident:
- Follow the guidelines for the incident found in the Emergency Binder.
- If you feel you may have incurred an injury of any kind, report it immediately to your supervisor.
- Be very clear on whether you require immediate medical attention, imminent medical attention or request additional accommodations to prevent injury in the future.
- Remove any defective carts from the rental roster until repairs are made.
- Report the incident to the Risk Management Team.
- Inform the staff of the incident and make corrections to procedures or errors to ensure that this incident does recur.
June McCreight
June McCreight began her career in the hospitality industry as a housekeeper in 1996. In the years since, she has risen through the ranks, learning maintenance, front office, sales and revenue management, property management and district management, bench management and opening team management. She has trained hundreds of hoteliers and won many awards for her management successes. In 2011, June wrote and published, The Strangers in My Beds, a fictional novel based strictly on the strange events of her career in hotels. In 2014, June partnered with her father, a very accomplished software architect, and opened the business, Coba Enterprise Management, LLC with a very unique and specialized CMMS (Computer Maintenance Management System) software for hotels.