This Tricky Amish Buggy Passing Situation Just Put A Woman In The Hospital

An Amish woman has been hospitalized after a wreck yesterday afternoon (Aug. 13) in Stark County, Ohio. This one resulted from a common and potentially dangerous situation that doesn’t get talked about enough.

First, the key details from the Canton Repository:

Trooper A. Burch said the Amish woman, who lives in the Navarre area, was riding her buggy south on Navarre Road SW.

A man in a pickup from the Wilmot area also going south crossed the double center line to pass as they approached a small hill.

With the driver apparently concerned about possible oncoming traffic, the truck shifted back and sideswiped the buggy, sending it off right side of the road.

The Amish woman was sent to hospital; the driver of the pickup was unhurt and cited for improper passing. The horse managed things well enough – it was also unhurt, and found its way back to the home farm, a short ways away.

This happened on US Highway 62, which has the local-stretch name of Navarre Road in that area. Highway 62 is just two lanes in this part of the state.

A Tricky Passing Situation

I wanted to draw attention to the specific circumstances of this accident because it shines a light on a specific situation that can occur and that people should be aware of.

Sometimes out of necessity people will pass a buggy on double yellow lines. This needs to be done with caution (and with some consideration depending what state you are in; see below). Practically speaking it’s something you can do with a vehicle moving at 6 miles per hour. You wouldn’t pass on a double line at 45 mph.

However in practice it can be done safely when you’re passing a buggy going that slow; you can get past the buggy very quickly and without covering a lot of ground.

But of course you have to pick your spot carefully, and that is where judgment comes in and where driver error can occur. This wreck happened as the driver attempted to pass “as they approached a small hill.”

We don’t know more than that from the report, and it very well could have been that an oncoming vehicle suddenly appeared from the other side of the hill. But it seems the decision to pass happened in the wrong spot.

It can create a dangerous situation if you decide to pass where visibility is too low. Then you have a situation where you’ve got to get back into your own lane quickly, and we have what happened here.

Is it legal to pass a buggy on double yellow lines?

So there are really two things to keep in mind. First, pick your spot carefully if passing on the double yellow lines. I honestly don’t know if this is even technically legal*, but people do it all the time, and if you didn’t and strictly waited for a broken-line passing situation, there would be lines of cars behind buggies dozens long.

*I just checked if it is legal – and it is, in certain situations, at least in Ohio and I suspect elsewhere. Here is the info regarding Ohio from the Department of Public Safety website:

Passing is prohibited from both directions when there is a solid double-yellow line in the center of the road. Crossing the centerline is permitted only to turn left into driveways or pass a slow-moving vehicle (e.g., bicycle or vehicle displaying a slow-moving vehicle sign) when safe to do so.

So that essentially says that you can do it when passing slow-moving vehicles, like buggies and I suppose tractors displaying SMV signs, and the like. This source notes that the slow-moving vehicle must be going under half the posted speed limit. Keep in mind this is for Ohio; laws vary across states.

Secondly, if you do misjudge distance, be careful getting back in your lane. This sounds like the person came back over too quickly to complete the pass. It may have been better to completely abort the passing attempt, hit the brakes and get back in behind the buggy.

Of course it’s all easy for me to speculate, not being in the situation with little time to decide. But I suspect this accident originated in a decision to try to get past a buggy on a double line where there truly wasn’t enough visibility to do so safely. So the key is not to get yourself into that situation in the first place.

In some cases, like in the greater Holmes County community (which is where this accident occurred, though technically in Stark County), with its many hilly, curvy roads, your patience may be tested.

You can spend several minutes trundling along as the line of cars grows behind you, waiting for a clear enough sightline to pass safely. I’ve done it many times. But better to be a bit late to your meeting than to send someone to the hospital.

No word on this woman’s condition but let’s hope she will make a full and fast recovery.