A woman from Illinois was killed in the sprawling Florida age-restricted community The Villages when she took a late-night golf cart ride with an allegedly drunk driver.
The incident happened just before 1 a.m. local time on Sunday, the Miami Herald reported.
The Villages is approximately 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
Richard Allen Keil, 58, was driving the golf cart in a residential area when he noticed a parked car and swerved to avoid hitting it, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.
When he swerved, his passenger tumbled out of the cart, according to officials.
“During the evasive maneuver, a 60-year-old female passenger from Norridge, Illinois, fell out of the golf cart and suffered serious injuries,” troopers said. “Transported to an area hospital, the passenger later expired from injuries suffered during the crash.”
Keil, who is a resident at The Villages, was arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter, according to investigators. He is currently being held without bond.
He moved to the Villages in 2015 from New Jersey with his wife. According to the Villages News — which is produced in and for The Villages — Keil lost his wife just after Christmas, and has been struggling with profound grief since her passing.
The identity of the victim has not been released. Investigators said they are not sure how she and Keil are connected. She was living approximately 15 miles from Chicago, and it is currently unclear why she was visiting Florida.
The Villages spans two counties — Sumter and Marion — and covers approximately 32 square miles of central Florida. The community has a population of just over 79,000 as of the 2020 census.
While not explicitly a retirement community, the Villages enforces an 80/20 policy with 80 percent of its units occupied by individuals age 55 or older. People under the age of 19 are not allowed to live in the Villages without an exemption, such as those covering subdivisions within The Villages have family units.
The Villages provides access to restaurants, markets, and other amenities, and many of the residents choose to use golf carts or similar carts to get around for their day-to-day activities. As a result, it’s not unusual to see a golf cart involved when accidents occur in the development.
Last December, a 92-year-old man driving in his golf cart struck a car, leaving him seriously injured. He was reportedly attempting a left turn and failed to yield to the right-of-way of oncoming car traffic, the Villages News reported.
The driver of the car was an 87-year-old Villages resident who couldn’t react fast enough to avoid the golf cart.
A golf cart and car collided in the same spot in 2019.
