Summaries of stories from my morning paper:
In Holton, PA, a van ran into an Amish buggy on a bridge over the Susquehanna River, killing the horse and seriously injuring 6 of the 7 occupants, 5 were kids.
In Leon, NY, a horse was spooked by a passing car and dumped the buggy he was pulling into a pond, drowning 4-year-old Veronica Miller and her 12-year old brother. The parents and 5 other kids were treated and released at a local hospital.
So what we have here is large Amish families stuffing everyone into these old fashioned things and taking them out on roads where people drive, even at the posted speed limit, far faster than the horse can trot, so it is a safety issue. If one of these things is hit, entire families can be killed. It doesn't do any good to say 'watch out for them' because there are car wrecks every day, sometimes wrecks happen in normal driving situations so of course a very slow thing like a horse and buggy make things worse. You come around a curve at 45MPH and don't expect to see something like that it might be too late. They are also dangerous at night because the Amish refuse to use fluourescent orange triangles because they 'don't believe in drawing attention to themselves'- sorry friends, nothing will draw more attention to you than going down the highway in a horse and buggy. No one cares about the orange triangle, but everyone points and waves at the horse and buggy! We can't expect every car to have to be to blame. Maybe it is time to limit these people to only certain roads at certain times.
All you Amish offended by this- GET OFF THE INTERNET! It's not 'plain' and requires electricity and phone lines you don't believe in!
Except, maybe just ban the SUVs and keep the buggies.
