Distracted Driver Removes Two Wheels From Buggy In Crash – But Passengers & Horse Mostly OK

I share this news because a picture is worth a thousand words. And there are two “good” images of this bad accident.

Bad, but not as bad as it could have been.

A distracted driver hit a buggy in upstate New York on Wednesday, reports country radio station Big Frog 104 (as an aside, great name for a radio station).

The location is Franklin County, NY, on the Canadian border. The county contains several small Amish communities.

There are not a lot of details of the accident other than “The driver of the car was not paying attention and ran into the buggy.” We don’t know the source of the distraction, but we can guess.

The impact was strong enough to remove two wheels from the buggy, as you can see in this photo:

Image: New York State Police

On the bright side, the occupants of the buggy, which included two children, fortunately only had minor injuries. The horse had just a minor injury as well. Here is another shot of the demolished buggy, with an emergency response vehicle:

Image: New York State Police

This brings to mind the accident on Prince Edward Island in 2019, in which a buggy was absolutely obliterated – making the buggy in this case appear lightly damaged by comparison. In that case, the driver amazingly walked away uninjured. Someone smiled on him that day.

I think it is good that news outlets publish these photos when possible. They remind us better than any words can do of the relatively flimsy nature of buggies, and how unprotected our fellow Amish citizens are as they travel country roads by their traditional form of transport.

While opinions and experiences vary, I believe that having Amish neighbors is on balance a plus for communities. More people seem to appreciate having the Amish as neighbors than those that don’t.

Part of being good neighbors is slowing down and practicing both patience and attention on the road – as impatience and inattention are two of the biggest contributing factors in car-buggy wrecks.

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7 Comments

  1. Guest

    Definitely

    Your last two points, especially. They are admirable people and could probably teach us all to be more patient.

    Plus people have lost so much humanity now we don’t have horses in our lives. Slow is sometimes better.

  2. Carla Potter

    Distracted Driver

    Thankful that those children and adult were not seriously hurt. I agree the
    Amish could teach us about being aware of our driving and being patient.

    It is so nice to read something good in the news,

  3. C.J.

    Thankful ~

    Thankful no one was killed, as well as the horse!
    GOD is Good, All the time, although oftentimes we are too busy to notice!
    I wish that you could follow up on some of these stories, and advise us if the drivers that hit these buggies are held responsible to pay for replacement buggies, the horses, and such…..Or, do the Amish just have to absorb the costs of replacements and/or hospital bills, or even funeral expenses, that careless drivers cause??
    Thank you for the interesting info that you do share ~ Blessings

  4. Geo

    Relatively?

    Relatively flimsy? No kidding. How about flimsy, period, relative to anything on the road except bicycles and pedestrians. Every Amish buggy on the highway is a demolition derby in search of a place to happen. Buggies always lose, too often tragically. Laws and behavior need to change to cope with this problem.

    1. Agreed, flimsy flimsy. Other than lower speed limits where appropriate I wonder what additional laws or changes to laws might reasonably improve safety. Otherwise would something like an awareness campaign change behavior? I am skeptical but would like to be surprised.

  5. Lydia Good

    Buggies

    I’m also thankful that no one was hurt…. BUT we always have to be alert. The other day I was on a back road. The sun was in my eyes. I didn’t see the buggy until I was almost on it. Fortunately I had enough space to pass it safely. I would NOT have had enough of space to slow down enough not to hit the buggy. If a car would have been coming from the other direction, what would have happened? I like to think I would have hit the ditch instead of the buggy. But it happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, everything could have had a different outcome. It was definitely a wake up call for me.

    1. Yes sometimes it takes a wake up call like that to drive it home, glad no accident happened and you and others are alright.