Shop around for liability coverage

 

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

 

Friday, August 16 (2:00 p.m.): It was just a five-minute discussion, but it revealed that obtaining liability insurance coverage for a golf cart isn’t as straightforward a matter as comparing companies’ rates and making the call.

As part of a July 12 GRF Golf Advisory Committee meeting, Chairman Burke Ferrari, GRF Board Liaison Ted Bentley and other committee members talked about golf cart insurance policies. Some spoke of their own arrangements; two committee members said they shared an insurance company, but their insurance coverage plans were very different.

A third member said homeowners’ insurance had paid on a claim he made after someone else’s golf cart caused damage. Yet another committee member said his golf cart was covered by a motorcycle policy.

There was anything but consensus about how golf cart liability coverage was achieved.

“It depends on your insurance company and how they want to look at it,” Bentley said.

That is exactly right, said Bob Passmore of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a Washington, D.C.-based national trade association. Golf cart insurance is dispensed via various insurance channels, he said – through motorcycle or off-road insurance policies, homeowners’ insurance, off-road vehicle insurance, regular motor vehicle insurance and renters’ insurance policies, among others.“ Different (insurance) companies approach it in different ways,” Passmore said.

In California, most golf carts are typically restricted to a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. Driving a standard golf cart – not necessarily “street legal” – is allowed on Rossmoor’s streets. In fact, Rossmoor’s founders ensured that would be the case when they decreed no street here should have a speed limit greater than 25 mph, specifically so that golf carts would be on equal footing with automobiles (and, nowadays, autonomous shuttles) as transportation options inside the gates.

Rossmoor policy (https://tinyurl. com/2s3jckmh) says all golf carts that operate on GRF property must be registered with the GRF.

Scott Hall, motorcycle product manager at Progressive Insurance, said coverage for golf carts that meet local legal criteria, and that has been deemed as acceptable by Progressive, is supplied by the company’s motorcycle/offroad vehicles line of insurance.

“This coverage applies even if the off-road vehicle is driven on-road illegally,” Hall said.

In Walnut Creek, California Vehicle Code-defined “golf carts” – motor vehicle having not less than three wheels in contact with the ground, having an unladen weight less than 1,300 pounds, designed to be operated at not more than 15 mph and to carry golf equipment and not more than two people, including the driver – are not allowed on city streets, only within Rossmoor. Local jurisdictions – a city or county, for instance – may pass an ordinance approving golf carts to be driven on public streets and associated regulations, but there is no such ordinance within Walnut Creek.

So, driving to the Safeway store at Rossmoor Shopping Center (or beyond) is technically not legal for most golf carts. Doing so would be a violation of state Vehicle Code 21716, with a base fine, surcharges and fees totaling $233, a city of Walnut Creek spokesperson said.

Separately, the Vehicle Code also spells out that golf carts operated on designated (by ordinance) public streets less than 1 mile from a golf course are exempt from “regular motor vehicle” registration. That, too, would include all of Rossmoor. If a golf cart later becomes subject to registration for any of several reasons, the registration requirements are the same as for an original or nonresident motor vehicle.

The Vehicle Code spells out certain requirements for a golf cart to be “street legal,” including possessing headlights, taillights, turn signals and mirrors. Additionally, if a golf cart can travel more than 15 mph or carry more than two persons (including the driver), it is considered to be a “regular motor vehicle” and must comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for a regular passenger motor vehicle. They can go more places; in certain designated locations in California, “street legal” golf carts can go up to 35 mph.

Passmore said it’s important for golf cart drivers to have enough liability coverage to “protect their assets.” If an accident proved more costly than, say, a $100,000 or $200,000 policy would cover, having an “umbrella” liability policy as a backup would come in handy.

However a company provides golf cart insurance, Passmore said, there’s a basic rule every consumer should heed when buying golf cart liability coverage.

“Shop around,” he stressed. “The more you drive on city streets, the more likely you’ll pay more.”