The Florida Highway Patrol was on the scene of a serious two-cart accident which occurred at 1:10 p.m.Wednesday on the golf cart path along Buena Vista Boulevard, 150 feet north of Belle Meade Circle.
A trooper on the scene of the crash indicated that it appeared that one northbound and one southbound cart collided on the multi-modal path.
The driver of one of those carts, Joanne Constance, 78, was transported to Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala.
The driver of the other golf cart, Christian Cieminski, of Lacrosse, Wis. who is visiting relatives in the Village of Springdale, said he was heading north along the golf cart path when the other cart in which Constance had been traveling was heading in the opposite direction and crossed into his lane.
“I came to almost a complete stop when I realized she was going to hit me,” Cieminski said, “and then she veered sharply to try to avoid the collision.”
That’s when the woman flew out of her cart.
“She flew through the air,” he said, “it looked like about 10 feet, and landed face down on her belly. She was pretty badly hurt. Her cart then hit the fence up there in the grass.”
Neither of the golf cart operators had been wearing seatbelts, the preliminary FHP report indicated.
The driver’s side fender on Cieminski’s cart was torn and the front headlight damaged.
Constance’s 1988 Yamaha golf cart came to rest in the nearby shrubbery, according to the accident report.
That particular section of multi-modal path is located in Community Development District 4 which recently had the path striped.
Multiple supervisors in CDDs across The Villages have been engaging in serious debate about the value of center line striping on the golf cart paths.
What are your thoughts on striping on golf cart paths? Share them with us by taking our poll:
