Sometimes a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do. In Kathy Harkum's case, that means driving her three children a half-mile to school in a golf cart -- even though she's legally blind.

But on the first day of school Monday, the 31-year-old Pasadena woman, who is ineligible for a state driver's license, encountered the county police outside Riviera Beach Elementary School and was warned that if she drove the cart again it would be towed.

"Now I'm stuck," Ms. Harkum complained yesterday. "It took me 30 years to find a way to transport myself, and I finally did it. Now, my neighbor's back to taking the kids to school, and I'm going to have to ask my family to take me grocery shopping."

But police aren't trying to "burden her in any way," said Officer Randy Bell, a department spokesman. That's why she received a warning instead of a citation that could have cost her $260, he added.

"With no safety devices on the cart and her diminished eyesight, it's not safe for her to be driving on the road with her children," he explained.

Ms. Harkum can see "shapes, figures and colors, but objects in the distance are fuzzy," said her sister, Beverly Locantore.

Ms. Harkum has driven the motorized cart since January to take her children to school and to the nearby bank and grocery store.

Ms. Harkum said she bought the used cart earlier this year for $2,000 after her father, Joe Harkum, said he was assured by a state police officer that if he added proper brake lights, headlights and a "slow moving vehicle" sign to the cart, she could drive it on county roads.

Mr. Harkum says he cannot remember the name of the state police officer.

Jim Lang, public information officer for the state Motor Vehicle Administration, said state law requires that a vehicle be equipped with seat belts, a horn, door handles, mirrors, an exhaust system, lights, windshield wipers, emissions equipment and a fuel system before it can be registered in Maryland and operated on public roads.

"A golf cart has some of those, but not all of those," Mr. Lang said.

It doesn't conform to federal or state safety regulations, Officer Bell added.

Pat Maurer, coordinator of community relations for the National Federation of the Blind, was sympathetic, but unsure whether Ms. Harkum should be driving the golf cart.

The federation wants blind people to be independent, Ms. Maurer said.

"But when people's safety is involved, that's a different question."