This Is What It's Like to Crash a Golf Cart at 30 MPH

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to suffer a major crash in a golf cart? Neither have we, but it seems like the folks at Euro NCAP got a bit bored and decided to answer a question that nobody asked. As you might expect, things get pretty ugly when these machines wreck at roadway speeds.

The Euro NCAP threw a golf cart at an obstacle while traveling 31 miles per hour, a pretty significant speed for even standard automobiles complete with a reinforced passenger cell, crumple zones, seat belts, and airbags. Additionally, most golf carts often have a limited top speed of around 10 mph in most cases.

But since a golf cart is basically a frame, a fiberglass body, a lawn-mower engine, and some scaffolding, as expected, the 2014 Villager 2+2 LSV used in the testing segment basically collapsed on itself. In the front collision test, you can see the back end of the cart essentially fold over the front from inertia, as the test dummy gets impaled by the steering column.

And unsurprisingly, the Villager was dealt a zero-star rating.

As previously noted, these golf carts aren’t quite capable of going over 10 mph without some modifications like removing the governor. But it isn’t always about the cart itself going that fast, as it is another vehicle colliding with the cart at such speeds.

Regardless, we’d recommend not having a crash in a golf cart, period.