A Villager has been sentenced after crashing into two golf carts earlier this year at Lake Sumter Landing Market Square.
David Hafer, 61, of the Village of St. Charles, will lose his driver’s license for six months and has been placed on probation for one year after pleading no contest this past week in Sumter County Court to a charge of driving under the influence. He also was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
Hafer had been driving a 2014 Yamaha golf cart at 8:22 p.m. April 17 when he crashed into a 2007 Street Rod golf cart that had been driven to the square by 66-year-old Richard Cenzi, of West Henrietta, N.Y. The collision pushed the Street Rod golf cart into a 2013 Yamaha golf cart owned by John William Fischer, of the Village of Caroline.
Hafer told the Florida Highway Patrol investigator that he had swerved to avoid a collision with another golf cart that had been backing up on the opposite side of the street.
“It should be noted that (Hafer) got out of his golf cart after the collision and walked away for approximately 10 minutes to ‘walk his dogs’ and then returned to the scene,” the FHP trooper wrote in the report.
Hafer was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. He was ticketed on a charge of careless driving, but that ticket was dismissed as part of this past week’s court proceedings.
The Street Rod golf cart sustained damage to its right rear fender. Fischer’s golf cart had damage to his bumper and weather liner.
