Michigan Drivers Keep Hitting Buggies: Two Amish Children in “Serious Condition”
This latest Michigan Amish buggy crash happened this morning a little while after 9 AM. Two Amish children, ages 9 and 11, were seriously injured. From WNEM:
ISABELLA CO., Mich. (WNEM) – Police are investigating a crash involving an Amish horse drawn carriage and a Chevy pickup truck that occurred in Isabella County.
The crash happened on Wednesday, July 16 at around 9:17 a.m. on West Blanchard Road and S Littlefield Road in Blanchard, according to Michigan State Police (MSP) at the Mt. Pleasant Post.
A preliminary investigation revealed a Chevy pickup truck was traveling eastbound on West Blanchard Road and South Littlefield Road in Fremont Township when they ran into the back of a horse drawn carriage.
Two Amish children who were in the carriage, ages 9 and 11, were transported to a local hospital in serious condition, MSP said.
The driver of the pickup was uninjured. This is a fresh story, and that is all that is available that I’ve been able to find. As usual, will update when more is known. Prayers for these children and their families.
This is not meant to be funny, but I might need to create a separate website category here called “Michigan Buggy Wrecks”. I’ve already got one called “Buggy Accidents”. But Michigan just keeps piling them up.
Meanwhile, the Michigan State Police reminded the public that this is national “Rural Road Safety Awareness Week”.
Good News? Some Michigan Counties are Taking Action
In positive news, three Michigan counties are taking steps to try to improve buggy safety, and have involved the Amish. That would be the southern counties of Branch, Hillsdale, and St. Joseph.
The three counties are home to eight separate Amish communities, totaling over 6,000 Amish people – close to 1/3rd of the state’s total Amish population. So this effort is important, as it can potentially cover a lot of the state’s Amish buggy presence.
Between 2016 and 2023, those three counties have accounted form 78 of the 261 known Amish buggy crashes in Michigan. Here’s what they are trying to do in response. From Wilcox Newspapers:
To try to combat the problem, a program in the last couple of years through the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency (BHSJ) has been looking to reduce traffic crashes and injuries in the Amish community through awareness, education, and collaboration with local agencies.
That program, which is funded through a grant with the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP), was outlined during Wednesday, July 2’s St. Joseph County Road Commission meeting.
What are the goals of the program?
Kris Dewey, the supervisor for health education and promotion at BHSJ, said the project’s overall goals were to reduce crashes involving Amish buggies by 15 percent by Sept. 30 of this year, increase awareness of the Amish in the driving community, and improve roadway signage and encourage planning efforts in roadway design to improve safety.
To that end, they are working with Amish leaders:
To accomplish those goals, Dewey said BHSJ has been working with 22 Amish bishops in St. Joseph County, as well as five each in Branch and Hillsdale counties, as well as developing culturally-appropriate educational materials to both the Amish and English communities. This includes developing a drivers’ manual with the bishops and developing a driver’s education program for buggy driving.
Main Safety Issues – according to the Amish
That involved distributing a survey to Amish to identify safety issues. Out of 250 surveys, 234 were returned:
The survey also asked what the main safety concerns were for Amish drivers, with the main concerns being aggressive drivers, sharing the road, and hills and curves. To the latter concern, Dewey said there have also been concerns about crops being planted too close to intersections during the summer, which can be a major safety issue.
“If you stop and think about it, our car maybe has six feet [in front of them], they have 12 feet because of the horses in front of the buggy,” Dewey said. “For them to be able to see at a corner with high vegetation, they have to pull out farther, which puts their animal at risk.”
Other concerns listed were being seen after dark/dusk, truck traffic, high-beam headlight use by motor vehicles, and rumble strips.
The crop issue is an interesting one and I’m glad to hear this one raised. Vegetation obstruction is, I think, an under-recognized issue for road safety in general.
There is more to it than that and I recommend checking out the article at the link.
It goes without saying that I hope they are able to make some headway. Both the Amish and English sides seem to recognize that there is a problem, which is positive.
And it sounds like they are leading the way in some sense for the entire state. According to Kris Dewey, a leader of the project:
She said it’s the first project in the state to focus on safety for Amish drivers.
“There have been a lot of individuals that have been reaching out to us from across the state,” Dewey said. “We’re kind of breaking ground here, and we’re still kind of learning our way. This is the first concerted OHSP project toward this in the state.”
Hopefully they’ll be able to have some impact.
And that’s important, because barring some other significant change, Michigan’s drunk, substance-abusing, or reckless drivers are not likely to change their behavior anytime soon.
safety
Do buggies have a slow moving vehicle sign on them??? Maybe battery powered flashing lights.. I hate to see the accidents and injuries sustained on the communities.