A 23-year-old Phoenix man was seriously injured last weekend after jumping from a moving golf cart, police say.
The accident occurred in Scottsdale during the early morning hours of Sunday, August 10. The man, who is believed to have been intoxicated, sustained serious head injuries after jumping from the back seat of the cart and hitting his head on a hard surface, police say.
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The exact speed the cart was traveling is unknown, but the driver, a 54-year-old Mesa man, was operating the vehicle legally, says Officer David Pubins, a Scottsdale Police spokesman. No charges or citations will be issued to the driver, Pubins says. Police will not identify the driver or passenger since no charges are being brought.
The accident occurred around 2:30 a.m. on westbound Indian School Road just past 64th Street. A portion of Indian School Road was closed for 3 1/2 hours as detectives from the Vehicular Crimes and Reconstruction Unit investigated the accident.
The lead detective on the case now believes the passenger voluntarily jumped from the cart, Pubins says. In an initial report, police were unsure whether the man jumped or fell from the vehicle.
The injured man has no recollection of what happened, Pubins says. He was listed in very serious condition last week but is now expected to recover.
He should consider himself lucky. Just this June, a female passenger broke her neck after being thrown from a golf cart that hit a groove in the road and rolled. She was a passenger using a downtown Scottsdale golf cart shuttle service. Police would not say whether last week's accident involved a shuttle service or a privately operated cart.
The June accident, like the one last weekend, occurred during early morning hours on a Sunday.
Scottsdale Police were not able to immediately provide information on the number of accidents involving golf carts this year.
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