5 Amish children escape injury when buggy hit

Guess the laws differ by state. In PA, the Amish use safety triangles AND have battery powered lights for night time. For those of you placing all Amish in one category, you're showing how little you know about them. There are different sects of Amish in each state and each sect has their own rules and restrictions. Those of us not Amish are "the English" to most them.

I'm all for the Orange triangles. But when the other driver is a drunk that flees the accident, the triangle wasn't the problem this time.

If you run into the back of a slow moving car...can you ticket them for not having a triangle. I know some drivers who should have the triangles on the back of their cars. The guy was drunk...he would have hit them anyway.

Bunch of middle class white people from the burbs. We always push our ways onto others. WE encroach on THEIR territories, communities, families and lives. We assume our ways are better, and we don't take time to under stand them. First, these folks DO pay taxes. Second, we encroached on their communities and insisted on paving the roads. Now we expect them to change their values and belief systems. This whole country needs a change to Voluntary Simplicity (Great read!). These folks choose to live a simple life, to keep to themselves, and to take care of each other... much higher priorities than what most of the nation can claim. Respect their differences and leave them be.

I live here and I will tell you the accident occurred at 4:00 P.M. in the afternoon it was not dark. The buggy had white reflective tape on the back in excess of the size of the triangle. The Drunk driver was pulling a cargo type trailer, he went around the Amish children and hit them with the trailer. He then stops unhooks the trailer and flees the scene of the accident. Then later decides to come back. The orange triangle would have made no difference whatsoever! KY state law refuses to acknowledge the white reflective tape which is bigger, and brighter than the triangle. This is a power struggle here, against the Amish and a waste of taxpayer money. The drunk driver however needs his butt tried for attempted murder these children are very lucky no one was killed.

So the driver of the SUV was drunk and fled the scene of an accident. What difference would an orange triangle have made?

I just read the rest of the post here and what gets me is the number of people who are more worried about the horse than the folks who were in the accident. Makes me think that if there child and a horse were about to go over a waterfall they would save the horse first.

The Amish in KY have been more than willing to cover the back of their buggies in reflective tape just as long as it can be gray. In the dark you see the reflection not orange or gray. Next time you're hit by a drunk driver, you tell me whethr or not it would have mattered if your bumper isn't painted orange.

So in Kentucky you can hit somebody while you're under the influence, from the rear, LEAVE THE SCENE.......and get CITED??? Cited equals ticket, right? Not arrested? I'm not a cop, I'm not a D.A., I'm not a lawyer, I don't drink and drive, and I haven't gotten a ticket since 1984 so I'm nowhere close to being an expert on drunk driving penalties...but I would think that in most places this guy would have been arrested rather than just cited. Is Kentucky unique or do lots of places just cite people for DUI and fleeing the scene?

Is it just me ... or is assuming a horse and buggy would be slow moving????

glad the children r ok

Ummmm- just a thought here but do you think a little sign would of helped here. THE GUY THAT HIT THEM WAS DRUNK!!!! Also, they do pay taxes. Here in Wisconsin they pay all the taxes us "English" pay except social security because they take care of their own. They even pay the school tax even though they have there own schools. All you folks who are going after the Amish for not having those SMV signs need to do some checking. They were willing to put off-white reflective tape on the back of their buggies but this county says that's not good enough. There is now a movement in the KY senate to update this law so they can do this.

I have followed many a slow moving tractor and horse trailer down a country road without so much as a red bandanna on them. I doubt they are ever stopped. However, I need more information on this car and buggy accident. I know the driver was DUI. But was it night? Was it the freeway? Was the Amish boy racing or something? I also know that Amish children start driving buggies as young as 12. By the time they're sixteen, they're usually pros. Something can eventually be worked out with the Amish about the triangle but it appears to me that this accident was not their fault.

The article sounds like they are more focused on the fact that the Amish Buggy did not have an orange triangle than they were concerned about the fact that a drunk driver hit the buggy. I dont think an orange triangle would have made any difference in this case. Amish people are not vengeful or disrespectful and follow our laws to the extent that their religion allows. It seems to me that the lawmakers are trying to show their muscle and push the underdogs down and the real person who commited the crime is the Drunk Driver. What happened to him? Why don't people just take ownership for themselves and if you see a horse and buggy on the rode use your intelligence and slow down??? As for the Amish if you take the risk of driving without the orange triangle then you cant blame or sue someone who might truely accidently run into you. It time people take ownership for their own actions!!!

While I doubt the triangle would have helped them in this case - clearly the other driver had problems of his own, a flat black buggy in the middle of a flat black road on a dark street is #$%$ near impossible to see. In places like KY and PA where streetlights are few and far between, sometimes the only thing you see is the orange triangle until you are within 15 feet of them, and when you are traveling 45 miles and hour, and they are travelling 10 -15 miles an hour you don't get much room for error. God helps them that help themselves - and in this case, they are NOT helping themsleves.

Okay maybe it's just me but I don't need to see a triangle to know that a horse drawn buggy is a slow moving vehicle, but you know what they say common sense really isn't that common. SMH glad the kids are okay.

Perhaps the article title should be "Drunk driver hits Amish buggy, children survive".. Then it makes it sound like the fault is on the #$%$ that decided to drive drunk and not the person who got hit.

ok I have total respect for religious beliefs of gropus but I also believe that if you are going to use public roadways you have to follows those rules for the greater good of everyone. i'm sure a compromise can be reached regarding marking the buggy but what good is that going to do when you have drunk drivers out there who can't see a black horse drawn buggy let alone an orange marker on the back of it. If they want the Amish to follow the rules of the road then they need to get drunk drivers off of it because they are breaking the law too and in a way that cost lives.

another case against the orange tiangles they could have had the back of the buggy lit with flashing lights and probably would still have gotten hit , the story writer did not mention the time of day the accident occurred if it was dark or still daylight , and where I am from you drive drunk and or leave the scene of an accident you go to jail for the night at least till you post bail , sounds like kentuky needs to change several of their laws

Poor horse. What did it do to deserve to be put at high risk situations like this? I wonder if the horse has any voice in this matter.