Golf cart cited for lack of seat belts in dunes

 Recently while recreating at the Imperial Sand Dunes my group was cited for no seat belts on our golf cart. We were traveling at 15 mph headed to the restrooms with three people. An Imperial County Sheriffs pickup was about a half mile away from us.

  He noticed the golf cart and activated his lights and siren and began traveling toward us at a high rate of speed. He conducted a traffic stop on our golf cart and the officer advised us that he had stopped us because he "noticed" we had no seat belts on our vehicle.

  When I began questioning the officer about when this seat belt rule took effect he said he didn't know but they were starting to enforce it this year. I began asking more questions about if I needed seat belts in the front, back seats or all seats or what we needed to be compliant and the officer advised me "he wasn't there to argue, take this up in court."

  He went back to his truck to run my info and write the citation and when he returned with my ticket I again asked what I needed to do to be compliant as I have never heard of this before. He again responded the same way.

  I find this troubling as the ICSO officers writing citations should be able to explain to me how to correct the infraction I have been cited for. Clearly this officer had no idea what he was enforcing and from what I can tell was told by his superiors to start writing tickets for this and that was it.

  Not to mention the fact he performed an illegal vehicle stop on us since he had no way of seeing if we had seat belts from a half a mile away. He just saw the golf cart and made the stop. I will be seeing the officer in court about this issue, as this is ridiculous.

  Did anyone else have the same issues in the dunes this season?

CHRIS ROBERTSON
Yuma