A Villager who has long warned of the danger of Morse Boulevard suffered a concussion after her golf cart was rear-ended on that busy thoroughfare.
Sherrie Hyer was headed home from water aerobics at about 11 a.m. Wednesday southbound on Morse Boulevard trying to make a left hand turn onto Guido Avenue to enter Villa De La Vista South.
“I had my blinker on and was using my hand to indicate a left turn,” she said.
The gate attendant was sending cars through the gate at County Road 466 and Morse Boulevard.
“He just kept sending them,” she said.
So she waited. Blinker on. Hand extended.
Then she heard the sound and felt the impact of a 2019 Honda Odyssey van rear-ending her 2021 Yamaha golf cart.
“He probably knocked me four car lengths,” said Hyer, who was seat belted into her golf cart.
The 86-year-old driver who hit her golf cart was ticketed. Hyer wound up at the Emergency Room at UF Health Spanish Plaines Hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion.
The irony is that Hyer, who was about a “a half a block from home” when she was hit, has long warned that section of Morse Boulevard north of County Road 466 is ripe for these types of accidents.
A decade ago, Hyer collected more than 1,000 signatures after 85-year-old Francis “Buck” Hughes was killed Jan. 13, 2015 when his golf cart was hit by a vehicle on Morse Boulevard.
She was a leading voice among a large group of Villagers sounding the alarm about the dangers of Morse Boulevard. They went before the Sumter County Commission, but their pleas for change were not answered.
Hyer suspects the other driver’s failing eyesight may have contributed to this past week’s crash. She said heavy traffic, speed, aging motorists and distraction all play a role in making Morse Boulevard dangerous for its mix of golf carts and automobiles.
“Now it’s happened to me,” she said.