The Dangers of Airport Carts

Feb. 8, 2007 — -- While the chances of being in a plane crash are slim, stealthy airport carts can cause accidents before even leaving the airport.

The golf cartlike vehicles used by airlines to help passengers travel between gates can be dangerous. Safety experts say there are two main problems: Airport carts are driven far too fast, and they're so quiet that pedestrians have trouble hearing them approach.

On Christmas Day 2005, a passenger cart whizzed past Steve Bomar at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, wiping out his mother and wife and sending them both to the hospital. Bomar described the moment before impact.

"I saw a shocked look on my mom's face as we were talking to her," he said. Bomar's wife, Deb, was shocked as well.

"It was scary. I thought a bomb had gone off," she said. "It hurt."

Sgt. Dave Karsnia of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport police said the Bomar family's accident was caused by the cart driver's mistake.

"That's the worst accident I've ever seen out here," he said. "We weren't sure mechanically that the cart was sound. But we had that checked and the cart was OK so it was a mistake by the driver."

The day before the Bomar's accident, on Christmas Eve 2005, John and Stacy Dombrosky's young son, who was two-years-old at the time, was involved in a cart accident, also at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

"I just saw this cart coming towards him, and I thought this isn't going to happen. This can't happen," Stacy said.

The cart rolled over David, nearly crushing his head.

"I was able to see the cart just coming to rest and David's head nearly underneath the front right tire just about to be rolled over," John said.

Stacy feared the worst.

"I'm thinking he's dead. I'm thinking he's dead," she said.

David escaped with painful second degree burns from being dragged. Now, his scars are almost completely gone. While his parents hope he's forgotten the incident, they never will.

"I have this overwhelming feeling of responsibility to people to warn them that this can happen," Stacy said.