Driver Had Cruise Control At 60 MPH When He Rear-Ended An Amish Buggy
This Amish buggy wreck involves something you don’t often hear of in these crashes – cruise control. The rear-end wreck sent an Amish man to hospital. This happened last week – on August 21 – but is just being reported today.
A note on the photo above. The image used in the article linked below is rather graphic, showing blood and also a horse lying by the road. I’ve cropped it to what you see here.
From the Paoli/Springs Valley News-Herald:
Police said a 2023 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Billy D. McKinney Jr., 33, of Shoals, was traveling west on State Road 56 when it struck the rear of an Amish horse-drawn buggy that was also traveling west.
The buggy driver, identified in the report as Danny Mast, was transported by Medic 502 to a Louisville hospital for injuries sustained in the crash.
The report listed one injury and no fatalities.
The crash happened in the afternoon at approximately 2:42 PM, with clear conditions and the roadway dry. The buggy was actually being pulled by two horses, and as mentioned, it looks like one was hurt, though there’s nothing in the report on that.
There is no update on the condition of the victim. Nearly a week has passed, hopefully he is well on the way to recovery, but I don’t know.
Cruise Control, And A Warning That Never Came
The account of the driver indicates that at least two technologies were involved that may have contributed – cruise control and the vehicle warning system:
According to the investigating officer, McKinney said he did not see the buggy in front of him before the collision.
He told police the roadway was shaded by nearby trees and said he was surprised when his vehicle’s airbags deployed.
He reported that his vehicle did not provide a warning before the crash.
McKinney told police he had his cruise control set at 60 mph. The crash report lists the speed limit in the area as 55 mph.
Cruise control can be a useful feature, but I generally use it on highways of at least four lanes’ width and good visibility, such as the typical interstate. I’m not sure it’s the best on two-lane roads. It was also set at slightly above the speed limit.
It’s unfortunate that in this area Amish buggies need to travel on roads with speeds that high, but that is just the case in some places.
The other thing is the vehicle warning system – or lack thereof. The driver’s statement that the system did not provide a warning suggests that maybe some of us are too reliant on vehicle assistance.
Warning systems may have the counterintuitive effect of making us less safe, by allowing us to be less vigilant on the road, relying more on our vehicle to “keep an eye out” for hazards. Just a thought.
On the buggy side, technology, or lack thereof, may also have come into play. The buggy was described by the officer as having no SMV triangle and minimal reflective material. That would be consistent with the Amish groups in this part of Indiana.
Orange County is home to two separate and unrelated settlements, both plain enough that an SMV triangle would not be used on their buggies.
The older group, dating to 1957, is centered around Paoli. The newer group, founded in 1994 near Orleans, is Swartzentruber-affiliated. Both of these groups generally use minimal buggy markings.
The crash site is east of Paoli and southeast of Orleans, between the two. So I’m not sure which group they are from and the lack of an SMV triangle and minimal reflective markings is not a useful clue here.
The driver agreed to a blood test; the report does not give the results and does not indicate that alcohol or drugs were a factor. There was no citation listed in the report.
