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Have you ever been hit by a golf cart? Have you ever hit anyone with a golf cart? Do you and your bros drink beer when you golf? If you answered yes to that last question then you probably answered yes to the first two as well. (I speak from experience.)
I ask these questions because I had no idea that my youthful tomfoolery could have ended up costing me millions of dollars.
Granted, I never truly injured anyone with a golf cart or was injured by someone hitting me with a golf cart, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort.
Sadly, that was not the case for one Mario Zaburski of Teaneck, New Jersey.
For you see, back in July of 2015, Zaburski had just finished playing the front nine at the Alpine Country Club in Demarest, when a rogue cart driver ran into him.
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Not actual footage of the event.
The impact of the cart caused Zaburski to fall on his back, aggravating a spinal condition and requiring surgery, reports NJ.com.
Zaburski, who worked as a financial analyst, was forced to miss a year of work due to his injuries, and was eventually laid off just three weeks before he was to be cleared to return to his job.
A jury in Bergen County ruled that the man who ran into Zaburski with his golf cart, Jerome Klein, must pay Zaburski $1 million for pain and suffering, $150,000 for future medical expenses, and $2.5 million for lost wages.
Damn…
According to Golfweek, this award isn’t even the largest ever received for a golf cart accident.
In 2013, some guy in Oklahoma was awarded nearly $17.88 million when he fell off a golf cart and hit his head on a concrete golf path.
He was riding on the front hood of the cart facing backward when the driver of the cart came to an abrupt stop, sending him sprawling and giving him permanent brain damage. The driver and the golf course were found liable for his injury.