Margaritaville St. Thomas, USVI.
Two South Carolina women are suing Wyndham's Margaritaville Vacation Club after they say a reckless golf cart driver caused them to be thrown from a moving vehicle and badly injured.
The civil complaint was filed last week in the St. Thomas/St. John division of Superior Court by Valencia Brown and Johnnie Green, who say they were at the resort in October 2023, guests of a timeshare owner.
The suite where the women were staying “was situated on one of the highest points on the premises,” the complaint states. The steep terrain required guests to be shuttled to and from the accommodation by golf cart, with the service managed by the resort.
On the night of October 19, 2023, the women were returning to the suite after attending a reggae event at the resort. They were in the second row of seats, and the complaint notes that there was nothing to hold on to, as the cart was designed for wheelchair accessibility.
“The driver of the golf cart was a young male who was not only driving fast but braking hard when approaching the turns and corners of the premises,” the complaint states. During the drive up to their suite, the cart reportedly hit something in the roadway, causing Ms. Browne to be thrown from the golf cart “at the edge of an extremely steep drop off, falling and impacting her buttocks, left elbow and forearm,” the lawsuit states.
One of the other passengers reportedly screamed in response, causing the driver to brake sharply, according to the complaint. The sudden deceleration caused Ms. Green to be “ejected from the golf cart onto the pavement, falling and violently impacting both her knees and right shoulder,” the filing claims. The driver that night, the lawsuit alleges, was “underage.”
The women were helped back into the cart and made it to their suite. The next day, resort employees took them to the emergency room, where they were treated and eventually discharged after over 10 hours. The lawsuit claims that Wyndham's employees left them stranded at the hospital, failing to pick them up after they were discharged despite promising to do so when they were being dropped off.
After getting a taxi back to the resort, the women say they had to knock repeatedly on the resort's “front door” until someone appeared to transport them the rest of the way to their suite.
The lawsuit alleges that the resort became uncooperative following the women's injury; copies of the incident report were not made available and emails to the assistant general manager were reportedly ignored.
Effects from the incident lingered long after the women left the resort, the lawsuit claims, with Ms. Green even needing shoulder replacement surgery the following October.
The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of the resort when it comes to how it manages the transportation of guests on property, including how the drivers are trained and supervised, along with how the roadways and golf carts are commissioned and maintained.
As of press time, the Margaritaville Vacation Club has not filed a legal response to the complaint.
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