re: Four wheeler safety

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I’m viewed as the “get off my lawn” guy in my neighborhood for posting about people letting their (sometimes very young) kids tootle around driving golf carts, usually full of other young kids on our neighborhood streets. Against the law, in addition to being stupid.

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We could be neighbors. The worst part is these youngerns are listening to shitty rap music while cruising the ‘hood.

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kids tootle around driving golf carts

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I got my 4 year old son a china made 40cc atv that's governed down to a minimum speed of 5 mph for christmas and am teaching him the foundational tenets of riding atvs- just like I am using bb guns for firearms, and a dulled down knife for handling sharp objects. all 3 are fun, but all 3 will kill you, is the way I teach him.

I do it because I know of over a handful of kids and young adults who've been killed dead as a hammer from atv/utv accidents. it's a wonder it didn't happen to us as kids, especially since we grew up on 3 wheelers. they hop on the things as teenagers with no prior teachings and get themselves killed, just like curious kids with a gun (I've got a personal horror story about that).

that said, golf carts are, in my opinion, the most dangerous of them all. people think they're innocuous because they're quiet and "slow" by comparison sake. I've seen someone run over by a golf cart with my own eyes and it eventually killed them from complications. they have no doors, poor suspension, are top heavy, and unless the key is off and it's put in neutral with the brake on, they are quite literally a loaded gun ready to go off when children are around them. all it takes is a key to be left on and in gear, and for a child to get in and easily step on the brakes and you've got a thousand pound battering ram on the run. imagine having your chest run over by that.

I've always said for kids, outside of disease or health conditions, there's cars/vehicles/atvs, water, heights, knives and guns: those are the basic tenets a responsible adult should train safety for if they want to raise children who also partake in our lifestyle. every single one, in multiple ways, can kill an adult, let alone a child.