PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — Drinking and driving pose something of a headache in a city where 1 in 4 residents owns a golf cart.
Just 10 days ago, police made front-page news in Peachtree City when they arrested the city manager as he drove his golf cart with a glass of wine in his hand.
It was not the first high-profile case involving drinking and golf carts in this quiet, orderly community 25 miles south of Atlanta. In 2004, a blind man drove a golf cart for two miles -- following the directions of the cart's owner, who had had six or seven beers -- until he ran into a parked car; both men were charged with reckless conduct.
But the city manager's arrest has sparked a contentious debate here about how to regulate a vehicle with a maximum speed of 20 mph. Some of the city's 36,000 residents worry that golf carts are being driven recklessly. Others complain that officers have become more than diligent in their patrols.
"Next, they'll start arresting people on their lawn mowers," a resident wrote in an online discussion run by the Fayette Citizen newspaper.
More than 90 miles of golf cart paths weave through Peachtree City's manicured cul-de-sacs, golf courses and around man-made lakes. In the late 1950s, when developers planned the golfing city, home buyers requested paths that would link their homes to the golf course. Golf carts became such a feature of the community that the city now requires developers to connect subdivisions to paths.
As the city widens its asphalt paths to accommodate the growing number of electric vehicles, the police department has reported a jump in golf cart crimes. In 2005, there were 16 drunken-driving cases, 41 thefts and 182 citations involving golf carts -- more than double the amount five years ago.
No one denies that the city manager breached the city's golf cart rules as he drove off after a concert by the Temptations at a local amphitheater. According to police reports, Bernard McMullen had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech and blew a 0.104% on a portable alcohol sensor. Under Georgia law, drivers are legally intoxicated at 0.08%.
Officers charged McMullen with driving under the influence, possession of an open container of alcohol and possession of alcohol in a park.
Mary Beckham, 64, a retiree who stood in the City Hall reception area last week to pay her golf cart registration fee, had no sympathy.
"He should have known better," she said. "Everyone knows you don't drink and drive a golf cart."
