Another Amish Sign Accident

whizkidkyus · Jan 18, 2012

Another Amish accident and buggy driver cited for no sign . If the SUV driver was drunk then I don't think that it would have made a difference if the buggy driver had a sign or not .

Whizkid
Amish Accident On The News

D15DAN · Jan 18, 2012

Like anyone should need a sign to tell them a horse drawn buggy is not moving at highway speed. More proof they'll give a license to anybody that walks through the door and asks for one.

Ron in NS · Jan 18, 2012

Why don't they ever say whether or not the horse was injured?

JML755 · Jan 18, 2012

Think about this logically: What is the purpose of a SMV sign? To warn drivers that the vehicle ahead is SLOW MOVING. My pont is this: You see a horse-drawn buggy ahead. Would anyone think that a buggy is NOT slow moving?

Fordfarmer · Jan 18, 2012

I agree, BUT the SMV sign can be seen and identified
at greater distances (especially when visibility is
poor) than a buggy... or a tractor.
The point is, it's a safety device, for the user AND
others on the road. Amish in this area use them, as
well as battery-powered lights.

sammy the RED · Jan 18, 2012

I hate it when people use the SMV for driveway markers.

Fordfarmer · Jan 18, 2012

Me too. I think it's actually against the law to use
them like that.

rrlund · Jan 18, 2012

There was one hit here in Michigan yesterday that an SMV wouldn't have done any good. A pickup spun out on the ice and hit him going the oposite direction. Guess they suspect the pickup driver was drinking.

Dave Sherburne NY · Jan 18, 2012

When I lived in Wi there were a couple of these accidents a year and the Mennonites had SMV signs on their buggies. Most of the time the horse was killed or had to be destroyed.

whizkidkyus · Jan 18, 2012

Ron In NS ,

They probably don't say anything about the horse because of PETA , but if the people in the buggy weren't injured severly or died then that is a good sign .

Whizkid

Mike M · Jan 18, 2012

I think some of you are missing the fact that SMV's are made of a highly reflective material which really helps them stand out at you at night and even low light times.
I live in Ohio Amish country and you can come up on buggies all hours of the day and night. In my area they didn't have any markings then after a few hits they are wiseing up and at least running dim laterns and some add reflective tape to the buggy border. In other areas farther from me I see them with really nice electric lights and flashers and even SMV's.

I feel they should be made to buy a license plate to pay road towards repair taxes like the rest of us.Those buggies do alot of road damage ! It could be in the form of a reflective SMV.

Fred Rogers · Jan 18, 2012

It's not the buggys that do the damage it is the horseshoes with hard facing that chew holes in the pavement.

whizkidkyus · Jan 18, 2012

Fred Rodgers ,

I agree with the horseshoes , but I have also seen the hard metal wheels do damage as they leave a line down the road .

Whizkid

Aaron Ford · Jan 18, 2012

The driver is responsible for his vehicle at all times. Period. People need to be responsible for their own actions. Deer don't have SMV signs (yet). Neither do pedestrians (yet). I couldn't see the buggy? Horsecr4p. You are apparently driving too fast for conditions. How many Amish buggies have ever run into anything? Why are we blaming the buggy operator? Why was it stated at the bottom of the article that the it was a case of suspected DUI? It should have stated DUI suspected in Car/Buggy collision. 5 injured. The lack of SMV should have been a footnote. In the case of a drunken driver would the SMV sign helped? Doubt it. It is another excuse by people that do not want to be responsible for their actions. It is inconvenient that their religious beliefs conflict with our modern culture. Is that their fault or ours? I have never hit a buggy. heck I have never come close. Course I don't drive drunk either...

Aaron

showcrop · Jan 18, 2012

(quoted from post at 12:32:49 01/18/12) The driver is responsible for his vehicle at all times. Period. People need to be responsible for their own actions. Deer don't have SMV signs (yet). Neither do pedestrians (yet). I couldn't see the buggy? Horsecr4p. You are apparently driving too fast for conditions. How many Amish buggies have ever run into anything? Why are we blaming the buggy operator? Why was it stated at the bottom of the article that the it was a case of suspected DUI? It should have stated DUI suspected in Car/Buggy collision. 5 injured. The lack of SMV should have been a footnote. In the case of a drunken driver would the SMV sign helped? Doubt it. It is another excuse by people that do not want to be responsible for their actions. It is inconvenient that their religious beliefs conflict with our modern culture. Is that their fault or ours? I have never hit a buggy. heck I have never come close. Course I don't drive drunk either...

Aaron

Here in NH we have no Amish buggies. What we do have is moose on the roads at night, and 1,200 lbs of moose through the windshield is often fatal. Moose like to scratch their behinds on trees so even though they mean to comply with the SMV emblems they often don't. Another problem is that the collisions usually occur as they are crossing roads as opposed to walking on the side of it. My personal experience is that due to the low reflectivity of their fur and their long spindly legs, they are not usually visible until you are virtually too close to stop. Therefore the only defense is extreme vigilance. If we had Amish buggies here I would appreciate for their sake as well as wives and kids that they have SMVs because they are not otherwise very visible. I am confident that tests prove that when split seconds count that an SMV emblem and it's meaning are identified significantly faster than the Amish buggie. Those who oppose the SMV emblem requirement have a responsibility to educate their state legislators of their error so that the requirement can be repealed.

Billy Shafer · Jan 18, 2012

The slow moving sign is useless. I haul fertilizer with an Adams buggy. Have signs all over the thing and I still have people run up on me. The sign is a complete waste of time.

Scott-SD · Jan 18, 2012

I was thinking the same thing.

Pitch · Jan 18, 2012

These parts,central NY, the Amish have headlights tailight and reflective signs. There are still a couple a year that get hit.
Buggies are the fault more often than you would think, they buy their buggy horses at the harness track and put them on the road before they are completely trained. Just a couple of months ago an Amish girl got killed,she was stopped at a stop sign,her horse bolted right in front of a milk truck. Neither horse or girl had a chance.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 18, 2012

So why aren't people WALKING on the same road required to wear a sign as surely they are harder to see than a horse and buggy?

Traditional Farmer · Jan 18, 2012

Crazy Laws.If they had of been walking on the road no sign would have been required and the driver would have been judged 100% in the wrong no matter what.

gordy from Iowa · Jan 18, 2012

Five kids in the buggy and your concerned about the horse? Wow

Ron in NS · Jan 18, 2012

The kids were ok, so the article says. I'm just saying, does no one care if a horse had to be shot? Pretty sure the horse did....

jm. · Jan 18, 2012

NO denining it the svm save life. Period.. Now how do we get people to use them properly I,ll never know. As a dealer we gave away kits every year at the fair, Maybe 200 to 300 and the cost of about $3.85 each. Felt it was good to get people into our booth. What we found was more than half of them ended up being used for driveway markers which really defeated the real use of the signs. Here in Tenn no enforcment for the use even on farm equipment, only thing is when you have that accident sure helps to say we had a svm..

JD PHIL · Jan 18, 2012

We all have to comply with the law, lights have to work on your car or truck,you must have slow moving sign on your farm machinery when on public roads so the amish need to do the same. We pay for the roads they use(and make make a MESS on FREE of CHARGE) No tags no insurance.

Paul from MI · Jan 18, 2012

On my way home from a tractor club meeting last night I came up on an Amish buggy with a good strobe light and a SMV. I could see it a long ways away. Not a problem, but some sects will not use the lights or SMV signs. I can't imagine why, but I know that accidents, and we've had some, could be prevented if all of them used better lighting.

The Dukester · Jan 19, 2012

It's just too bad there can't be a lane off the pavement on the main roads for the buggies....they sure have 'em down by Shipshewana....I don't know how they got them....maybe the Amish paid gas tax....doubt it! I just feel sorry for the innocent kids.

Another Amish Sign Accident

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