Today I discovered another report about the new law in Ohio that requires all buggies to have yellow blinking lights and how some of the Amish men are non-compliant. Most of them are pleading no contest in court, resulting in a guilty verdict and then refusing to pay their fines.
I don’t know how to get the most conservative Amish to yield to secular laws. In the Amish mind, secular laws are secondary to the authority of the church elders, and if the bishop says the lights are against their Ordnung, then the Amish will go a long way to flouting secular laws to comply with the bishop. They are such practiced martyrs, so some will even go to jail rather than yield to secular authority. Most law enforcement and the courts are not going to want to be seen as beating up on the Amish, so often Amish citizens get away with violating the law, while their “English” neighbors would have to comply. After all, how are they going to force them into compliance… confiscate their horses and/or their buggies? Most would see this as a step too far.
The yellow blinking lights may reduce the number of accidents, but I feel like there needs to be a better long-term solution. The speed differential between motor vehicles and buggies is too great to have them share main roads safely. If a buggy gets hit it flies to pieces and most often the horse is injured or killed. With or without the blinking lights, there are those who aren’t used to driving in Amish country and are surprised by how fast they come up on a buggy. I always think that I need to treat one as if it were a cow in the road.
There are other unpreventable accidents. If you come around a bend, you may not expect to see a buggy in the road. Or the horse may veer off into the oncoming lane. There are numerous scenarios in which accidents cannot be avoided. So yellow blinking lights may be a measure that was important to take in Ohio, but I cannot imagine it will be easy to measure how effective they will be in reducing traffic accidents.
I find nearly every day there is another report of a vehicle-buggy accident, sometimes multiple reports a day. Considering the Amish are the largest growing segment of the U.S. population, this problem is only going to grow worse unless we make major changes.
A few years ago, I proposed a solution to the car-buggy problem and then found out later that it already existed in some Amish areas. This idea takes into account that buggies are much more compatible with bicycles than with motor vehicles and therefore could share “the road” with cyclists and pedestrians instead of motor vehicles. In other words, put buggies on bike paths instead of roads. This option exists in parts of Indiana and Ohio, including my home community that offers the option of avoiding a section of Route 608 that is especially hazardous for buggies. David and I had the opportunity to bike on that path on a beautiful autumn day a few years back.
According to The Young Center, the Amish population is doubling every twenty years. I hope as the Amish communities grow, more of these buggy/bicycle byways will be built to relieve buggy traffic on the main roads. I keep hoping for that option here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where the Old Order Mennonites travel by horse and buggy, especially between Harrisonburg and Dayton.
Have you ever had the occasion of driving in Amish country? What were those experiences like?
I remember reading about the bike paths that the Amish could use . I think some were once railroad tracks that had been converted. I so agree that blinking lights are not enough.
Paul and I often spend time in Holmes county Ohio ( mostly in Berlin & Kidron) and Lancaster Pa. and we come across them in Slippery Rock Pa. Where we have a camper. We are use to the buggies and give them the respect they deserve to keep them safe. We give them space and make a slow and cautious circle around them so as not to spook the horse. And never blow a horn around them!! (As sadly we have witnessed others do). Some times the sun can be blinding & you can come upon a buggy without warning.
But if you are a tourist who is not use to being around horse & buggies you may not be as cautious.
Of course not all are hit by tourists, locals can have an accident with a buggy as well.
And your right about how often it occurs. I get the Budget and there is ALWAYS accident’s reported.
I wonder if anyone has ever compiled just how many injuries and deaths occurs within a years time in the United States within these Amish communities? I’m sure the number’s would be staggering.
Hi Saloma,
I live in mid-coast Maine now and am surprised at the number of Amish that live in this area! I occasionally come upon a horse and buggy on Rt 17, near Whitefield (when I’m driving from Augusta to Rockland). There is a fairly wide breakdown lane in some spots. I like the idea of bike paths, although I would be most surprised to meet a horse and buggy on the Kennebec Rail Trail!
I also think cyclists take their lives into their own hands while riding on roads that are heavily trafficked. Scary!
I have driven in Amish country in Indiana and Ohio. I have also driven through Pennsylvania, although not in Amish areas. In Ohio and Pennsylvania you have an undulating landscape and winding roads that make it very difficult to see very far ahead. People drive too fast for the road conditions, even if there are no buggies on the road. I remember one time in Ohio I was following another car (this was planned) and they got far ahead of me because I would not match their speed. In addition, my small car did not corner like their BMW, and I could not whiz around curves like they did.
No amount of blinking lights on the buggies will solve this problem. The only solution is heavy penalties for drivers for speeding and providing roads with no buggies for people who want to drive faster.
P.S. The first lesson of a driver should be that you are responsible for what you hit. All drivers make mistakes, but it is reckless driving that causes most serious accidents, and these are the same drivers that try to shift the blame to the buggies. We need to stop legislating the buggies and start cracking down on cars. (In the USA we do a woefully bad job of dealing with drunk drivers.)