Family awarded $7M after golf cart accident severely injures daughter

By Karli Barnett

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    MARIETTA, Georgia (WANF) — What was supposed to be a quick golf cart ride led to severe injuries and multiple surgeries for a Georgia girl.

Her family learned the hard way that not all golf carts have the safety features one might expect.

Atlanta News First spoke exclusively with a mother who took on a major company with ties in Georgia in an effort to protect others.

Elizabeth Hall remembers May 2018, when she was told her then three-year-old daughter Libby had been rushed to the emergency room.

It would be the start of a month-long hospital stay.

“She was in ICU. She was on life support. She had to have a total of seven surgical procedures,” Hall explained.

It all started after Libby was on a golf cart with her father in a Marietta neighborhood. They had to brake suddenly when a car stopped in front of them.

“The golf cart flipped on top of her and dragged her,” she said.

Hall said Libby’s injuries included a concussion, broken clavicle and lacerated liver.

“I almost lost my daughter on something that, I think, most people think is pretty safe to drive around the neighborhood,” she said.

The cart in question was the 2013 Yamaha G29. Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation is based in Newnan.

“We uncovered there was a defect in how Yamaha designed the brakes on the golf cart. Namely, that they put brakes only on the rear wheels of the golf car, rather than all four wheels,” said Hall’s attorney Frank Bayuk.

“Golf cars are one of the only four-wheel motorized products that it’s not illegal to have only two-wheel brakes,” he continued.

Bayuk and his team used reenactments to demonstrate the golf cart braking on a downhill slope.

“What happens when you drive the car as Yamaha designs it? In those circumstances, the car rolls over every time,” he said. “And then what happens if you add front brakes in the same exact scenario? The car rolls over zero times.”

“We think it’s really unacceptable because the fix, which is putting brakes on the front wheels so that it’s four-wheel brakes, is maybe like $100,” he explained. “It’s cheap. It’s easy. There’s really no reason not to do it.”

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, there about 15,000 golf cart related injuries requiring ER visits in the U.S. each year.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says from 2010 to 2019, there were 63,500 golf cart accidents with children.

Yamaha’s defense argued the golf cart had been modified from the original design to include a lift kit, larger tires and a rear-facing seat. They said they were only for intended use on the golf course.

However, Bayuk pointed out the golf cart had been sold to them with the modifications that way and further showed an advertisement from Yamaha that has an image of a father and child riding a golf cart on the road.

After a 10-day trial in Cobb County, the jury ultimately agreed with Hall and awarded her family $7 million in damages.

The jury also found the father who was driving the golf cart 44% at fault and the man who modified and sold it 5% at fault.

Yamaha, who was found most at fault, though, is responsible for the entire payment.

“Given the choice between the verdict and having this never happen, I wish this had never happened,” Hall said. “This award is solely for my daughter’s benefit, and I hope this will help her in her future and the challenges she has ahead of her.”

Libby is now a third grader who, Hall said, loves to sing and perform on stage.

She still has at least two more surgeries ahead.

“I hope that it resonates with Yamaha,” said Hall. “That they make a change, that they protect their customers. Other ‘Libby’s’ that are out there in the world.”

Atlanta News First reached out to Yamaha’s attorney Carol Michel. Michel said they were “disappointed” in the verdict and filed an appeal at the beginning of April.

Golf carts are legal on Georgia roads on streets 35 miles per hour or less as long as they have headlights, tail lights, and brake lights.

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