A child has died after a golf cart rolled over at a private residence near Anthem, according to authorities. The crash happened around 11:04 p.m. Saturday near New River and Saddle Mountain roads, on private residential property rather than a public street.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office confirmed the timing and location of the rollover, as reported by KTAR News 92.3 FM. According to that report, a family member was driving the golf cart when it rolled over, and three children were seated together on a bench seat inside the cart at the time. The child died after suffering injuries in the crash, authorities said. The cause of the rollover has not yet been identified.
The unincorporated community of New River, where the crash occurred, falls within Maricopa County Sheriff's Office District 4, which handles primary law enforcement and 911 response for unincorporated areas around Anthem, New River, and Cave Creek, per public jurisdictional records. The area is known for large-lot rural acreage and low population density, with private properties that typically lack municipal services or homeowners associations, according to local real estate data. That kind of setting means golf carts and other off-road recreational vehicles are commonly used on private land outside the reach of standard street-traffic enforcement.
How Arizona Law Treats Golf Carts
Arizona law defines a golf cart under Arizona Revised Statute § 28-101 as a motor vehicle with at least three wheels and an unladen weight under 1,800 pounds, while street-legal low-speed vehicles are capped at a maximum speed of 25 mph. Separately, ARS § 28-907 requires drivers to secure children under age 8 or shorter than 4 feet 9 inches in an approved child restraint system when operating vehicles designed for 10 or fewer passengers. Arizona's seat belt law, ARS § 28-909, requires front-seat occupants and all passengers under 16 to wear safety belts, though enforcement for adult front-seat passengers is a secondary offense.
Whether or how those statutes apply to golf cart operation on private residential property, as opposed to public roads, was not addressed in available reporting on this crash. Bench seating like the one described in this incident lacks the restraint systems required in standard vehicle seating positions, a gap that safety researchers say is central to why golf cart crashes so often turn dangerous for young riders.
National Data Shows Children Face Outsized Risk
A national study presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2025 conference found that golf cart-related injuries send an average of 3,846 children and young adults to emergency rooms annually, with children under 12 accounting for nearly half of all victims. Pediatric trauma researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, whose findings were detailed by Drugs.com MedNews, found that fall-related ejections cause nearly half of pediatric golf cart injuries, frequently leading to head, face, and neck trauma in young children.
Separate data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, analyzed by safety engineering firm Technology Associates, indicates that passenger ejections occur in roughly 40% of golf cart accidents, and that rollover incidents are twice as likely to require hospital stays compared to non-rollover crashes. Open bench seating, common on residential and recreational golf carts, offers little protection during sudden turns or a flip, leaving occupants vulnerable to being thrown clear of the vehicle.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Rollovers
This is not the only golf cart rollover Arizona has seen in recent weeks. A rollover trapped a rider under a golf cart on crumbling desert terrain near Green Valley in Pima County on August 16, sending two people to the hospital. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has not released additional details on what caused the Anthem-area rollover, and the investigation remains ongoing.
