I have to admit when I saw the headline of this story (“Driverless Amish buggy crashes in Watertown”), the first thing that came to mind were driverless cars. Had Amish in some under-the-radar settlement stealthily adopted battery-powered self-driving buggies when no one was looking? Some Amish absorb change faster than others…but that would be quite […]
Continue Reading “Driverless” Amish Buggy Crashes After Two-Mile Ride
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driverless buggy
In a situation like this where the horses and buggy get loose and causes an accident and the Amish not having insurance on the buggys who would end up paying for the damage on the vehicles that were hit
I think most likely the Amish have a community insurance pool in case of litigation for damage.
Who Pays?
I expect it would work the same way as when my car hit a cow in the road at night and the farmer did not take responsibility, nor was the cow tagged for identification (although everyone knew who it belonged to) Another time I was rear ended by a driver with no insurance. In both instances my auto insurance paid for damages and medical.
Must Have Been an Elon Musk Driverless Buggy
The Amish buggy that crashed without a driver must have been a prototype driverless buggy being developed by Elon Musk. Wait until he tries to develop a buggy that runs on a battery instead of a horse. LoL.
Love Finds You in Sugarcreek
Erik,
Your article reminds me of a 2014 TV movie, titled “Love Finds You in Sugarcreek.” The acting wasn’t the greatest but the contemporary movie took place in Sugarcreek, OH.
It had a scene with a runaway “driverless” Amish buggy. In the fictional movie, no one was injured–people or the horse.
As a result of this accident, two city police officers disagreed on how to handle the incident. A relative newcomer to the community and the department, said the young Amish man needed to be ticketed to “teach him a lesson.” The other, home grown, local officer, who had Amish relatives, disagreed.
She said, (summarizing) Oh, by the time he gets home everyone will know what he’s done. His family and community won’t ever let him forget this. He’ll be embarrassed enough by his mistake. It won’t happen again. He’ll be more careful. He doesn’t need a ticket.
As a former deputy sheriff, I remember the scene because I like how it was handled in the movie. Officers are allowed discretion on most incidents, to do the “right” thing. You might also call it cultural awareness.
Makes me wonder how a lack of awareness by an English person or organization can be interpreted as uncaring, uncompassionate, or of being hard-handed.
This scene from a movie could even turn into a future blog where the amount of cooperation between the Amish and the English would in part be determined by the amount of trust with a person in law enforcement, not totally on rules from the Ordnung or interpretation of a district bishop.
Thanks again for your essays/blogs.
Jim
I think it’s a great point. The human element is always important…to take another example, the Nickel Mines tragedy as awful as it was apparently led to better cooperation and relationships between Amish and local law enforcement.
WoW!
There’s always something new under the sun. In all my years with The Amish, I have never heard – or seen – of two horses pulling a buggy. This has to be something new. The horses can’t be hooked up side by side, so they were evidently one ahead of the other. Wait ’til I tell my Amish friends in Wisconsin about this. I know they’ll get a charge out if it.
Two horses
Lancaster resident here…Bird-in-Hand area. Yes, on occasion two horses are used for buggy transportation. Most likely, for exercise if one of the horses are in need of same. I was told it does not double or increase speed much. Of course, different districts and settlements may have different sets of rules in regards to a post in this thread.
Two horses..
Two horses side by side is common. Primarily used to haul a large family or other heavy load in hill country where a bit more “horsepower” is required. For those that are used to seeing big draft horses used in this manner, two Standardbreds or other similar sized horses can travel this way as well. The article didn’t mention how they were tied, or what went wrong, but I’ve seen this before and the result is terrifying to watch.
Two often are used for longer trips to town, and it only takes one of them to break their way free to start the other one thinking he/she needs to go too. Once gone, it takes a brave man to stand in front of an undriven team. They get quite wild and nervous without a teamster, and run like blazes. I’ve seen seem crash through a 8’ tall chain link fence at a fairground, and through fields at full speed. A horse on the loose like this makes the livestock at a rodeo look tame. Fear takes over, and the results are seldom without damage. Do this once, or see someone else make this mistake and you will never casually tie any driving horse, no matter how broke, again.
Note the extra neck rope on the one horse in the picture. He or she has a history of breaking lead ropes or bridles, and that rope is to insure they don’t get loose. It’s broken, and I suspect that horse is strong enough to have broken it.
HORSES ARE SMART
yes,horses are smart but if you look at photo of horse w rope around neck you can see the bottom end is frayed/torn![such ropes are used for securing them when out & about] perhaps this one was old /weak -something spooked the hosrse and jerked his head-or could have chewed on it! Some horses get tired of waiting in the cold! Yes,most have manual brakes for use while driving but would not have been used while parking.
I’ve seen Amish driving a pair, side by side, in Pennsylvania. Tandem would be too long.
poor horses
Poor horses. btw it’s weird to have to title all the comments.
Titles are not required. That option is just there for those who want it. You can comment without them.
Horses are smart
Thankfully no one got hurt seriously. Horses are smart. I had one that knew how to untie the rope. Could be thats what happened. And the comment about who pays for the vehicle when amish carry no insurance well i believe the people who own the car would be carrying comprehensive meaning their insurance will cover. I was wondering if a brake on the buggy was set or do they not have brakes. I seen movies that show wagons etc have a break so I’m curious.
The method that horses are tied does not lend itself to the horses being able to untie themselves. I’m thinking someone who doesn’t like the Amish and their horses on the roads, untied this pair.