{"id":63614,"date":"2026-03-11T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63614"},"modified":"2026-03-11T21:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:20:36","slug":"this-is-a-harrowing-story-out-of-the-local-area-on-march-8-2026-a-17-year-old-girl-in-lakeland-was-seriously-injured-when-the-golf-cart-she-was-riding-in-flipped-over-pinning-her-beneath-its-rough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/11\/this-is-a-harrowing-story-out-of-the-local-area-on-march-8-2026-a-17-year-old-girl-in-lakeland-was-seriously-injured-when-the-golf-cart-she-was-riding-in-flipped-over-pinning-her-beneath-its-rough\/","title":{"rendered":"This is a harrowing story out of the local area. On March 8, 2026, a 17-year-old girl in Lakeland was seriously injured when the golf cart she was riding in flipped over, pinning her beneath its roughly 900-pound frame."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The accident has highlighted both a frightening moment of crisis and an incredible act of quick thinking by her friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"98979d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #98979d;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"392\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-11T210524.844.webp?resize=650%2C392&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63615 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-11T210524.844.webp?w=650&amp;ssl=1 650w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-11T210524.844.webp?resize=300%2C181&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">One second, Lizette Vega was celebrating her 17th birthday with her five friends, riding on her family\u2019s golf cart through her neighborhood in Lakeland.<br>And the next, the 900-pound golf cart was on her neck, and she couldn\u2019t breathe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Incident<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The teen was a passenger in the cart when it overturned during a turn. The weight of the vehicle caused significant trauma, resulting in <strong>multiple bone fractures<\/strong>, including her femur and several ribs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What could have been a fatal situation was mitigated by the immediate actions of three other Lakeland teens who were with her. In a surge of &#8220;adrenaline-fueled&#8221; strength, they managed to <strong>manually lift the 900-pound golf cart<\/strong> just enough to pull her out from underneath before emergency responders arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This incident serves as a stark reminder of the risks associated with golf carts, which are common in many Central Florida neighborhoods. Safety experts often point out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Stability:<\/strong> Golf carts have a high center of gravity, making them prone to tipping during sharp or high-speed turns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Weight:<\/strong> While they look like toys, most electric models weigh between 800 and 1,100 pounds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Passenger Safety:<\/strong> Many carts lack rollover protection systems (ROPS) or seatbelts, which are standard in standard vehicles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The teen was transported to a local hospital, where she is currently recovering from her surgeries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The accident has highlighted both a frightening moment of crisis and an incredible act of quick thinking by her friends. The Incident The teen was a passenger in the cart&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMy0xMVQyMTA1MjQuODQ0LndlYnA_Zml0PTY1MCUyQzM5MiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlRoaXMgaXMgYSBoYXJyb3dpbmcgc3Rvcnkgb3V0IG9mIHRoZSBsb2NhbCBhcmVhLiBPbiBNYXJjaCA4LCAyMDI2LCBhIDE3LXllYXItb2xkIGdpcmwgaW4gTGFrZWxhbmQgd2FzIHNlcmlvdXNseSBpbmp1cmVkIHdoZW4gdGhlIGdvbGYgY2FydCBzaGUgd2FzIHJpZGluZyBpbiBmbGlwcGVkIG92ZXIsIHBpbm5pbmcgaGVyIGJlbmVhdGggaXRzIHJvdWdobHkgOTAwLXBvdW5kIGZyYW1lLiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.JahqyWL1kCYvssUSspfjxp4o5pXSo6PbYCXP1seOt18MQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14021],"class_list":["post-63614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-this-is-a-harrowing-story-out-of-the-local-area"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63616,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63614\/revisions\/63616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}