Villager Doreen Buresh has plenty to say about golf cart traffic on Morse Boulevard – especially in the area of San Marino Drive.
“Something really needs to be done,” she said. “It’s really dangerous.”
Buresh should know. This past November, she and another Villager, Rodney Hampton, were injured in a crash there when their golf cart flipped over after being clipped by an SUV that sped up to turn right onto San Marino Drive, she said.
Buresh and Hampton were headed to their Village of Pennecamp home after a round of golf at the El Diablo Golf Course on Enrique Drive. With their friends in tow behind them in a second cart, the plan was to make a stop at Lake Sumter Landing for dinner before calling it a day.
But that all changed as they traveled down the golf cart path on Morse Boulevard that’s located directly beside the busy roadway – one that forces golf carts to be within inches of much heavier and faster full-sized vehicles for several miles.
“If I wouldn’t have seen that SUV, we would have been dead,” Buresh said, adding that both she and Hampton were ejected from the cart and still are dealing with a multitude of serious medical issues. “We would have gone straight into the intersection.”
Buresh is bringing the accident to the forefront again because she read a recent Villages-News.com interview with Community Development District 1 Supervisor Ellen Cora. In the article, the CDD 1 board chairman, who is seeking a third four-year term, said she will continue to appeal to Sumter County officials to widen “what many, including law enforcement, know is an unsafe road – Morse Boulevard north of County Road 466,” extending to U.S. Hwy. 27/441.
“This narrow road was built before anyone could envision how crowded The Villages would become – and golf carts ride within inches of large trucks, swaying lawn-tractors trailing behind, and sometimes speeding or impaired drivers,” she said. “To reach the multi-modal tunnel going south under CR 466, the carts must also cross several lanes of large vehicle traffic, at their peril.”
Cora said it seems as if county commissioners are so wrapped up in spending money on the expansion of The Villages to the far south that they’ve forgotten about things like road safety for longer-term residents along Morse Boulevard north, which is a county road.
“Modernizing it will be complex and costly, but it can and must be done,” she said.
Buresh agrees.
“I’m here to help if something can be done,” she said. “Maybe I can talk to a board or we can get a petition going.”
As for what she’d like to see happen along Morse Boulevard, Buresh said it’s really quite simple.
“I’d be ecstatic if they would put in a golf cart lane that’s off the road,” she said. “Wherever there’s grass alongside Morse, I’d like to see them use the space to get the carts off the roadway for the safety of everyone. I’ve seen other accidents there and I have flashbacks about it. We were going to dinner and we went to the hospital instead. It was really very scary.”
Pleas for changes on Morse Boulevard have been known to fall on deaf ears. In 2015, Villager Sherrie Hyer collected 1,000 signatures on a petition after the death of Francis Cradock “Buck” Hughes whose golf cart was struck by a vehicle on Morse Boulevard. Hyer presented the petition to the Sumter County Commission, but no action was taken.