HB 1009: Allow Golf Carts on More Public Highways

In the White People Problems file, Representative Bill Shorma (R-17/Dakota Dunes) wants to put golf carts on more public roads.

In 2013, the Legislature passed 2023 House Bill 1215, now SDCL 32-14-15.1, which allows people to drive golf carts on state and county roads where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour or less. The Department of Public Safety, the police chiefs, and even golf-crazy Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck opposed letting golf carts on the roads, but the bill still survived the Senate on an 18–16 vote.

Now Representative Shorma wants to expand the real of golf carts with 2026 House Bill 1009, which would allow golf carts on highways with posted speed limits up to 35 miles per hour.

Far be it from me to stand in the way of measures to open more roads to more alternative vehicles, especially little carts that don’t run on fossil fuels. According to one report, 85% of golf carts sold in 2022 run on electricity. If letting golf carts on more roads can help change the car culture to make room for all non-gas motorists, then hooray for HB 1009.

But Rep. Shorma’s golf cart boosterism could butt awkwardly against his commitment to keeping the grandkids safe. More golf carts on the roads mean more kids in the hospital:

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia conducted the study, which analyzed golf cart injuries that sent children and young adults to the emergency room. They found that these injuries had increased in recent years, with almost half involving children under the age of 12. More needs to be done to beat back the golf cart menace, the researchers say.

“The growing trend of golf cart use in residential areas, alongside the increased frequency of children driving and riding these vehicles, correlates with a concerning rise in both the number and variety of childhood golf cart injuries,” said study author Theodore Ganley, director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at CHOP, in a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The researchers pored through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a database of injuries treated at hospital emergency departments across the country. The data is intended to be nationally representative, so scientists often use it to gauge how many Americans are hurt by specific products or specific causes of injury.

They examined NEISS data between 2010 and 2023, focusing on golf cart-related injuries among children and young adults (aged 22 and younger). They counted 1,419 cases during that period—amounting to an estimated 53,855 such injuries nationwide during that period. On average, they estimated that around 3,800 golf cart injuries occurred annually, but they also found that these injuries had increased consistently during the past three years [Ed Cara, “Kids Are Getting Hurt by Golf Carts More Than Ever,” Gizmodo, 2025.09.26].

But regular cars hurt over 63,000 kids riding in cars and killed 711 in 2021. So maybe taking the grandkids to the grocery store in the golf cart—in seat belts, not on Grandpa’s lap with their little hands on the wheel playing driver—would be safer than loading them up in the Bronco. Or, as this crash test video suggests, maybe not.

Perhaps HB 1009 is not as trivial as my first glance suggests. Perhaps HB 1009 opens the door for a broader debate in committee and in the big chambers about highway safety, car culture, and what care we ought to show for our fellow users of the road.