A push to stop drivers from crashing into horse-drawn buggies in SW Michigan

• A $70,000 state grant in Branch, Hillsdale, and St. Joseph counties will fund efforts to prevent vehicle collisions with horse-drawn buggies and carriages
• Two Michiganders — including an 8-year-old girl — have died in recent weeks because of such crashes
• Such crashes killed 18 Michiganders between 2016 and 2023

An 8-year-old Amish girl died Wednesday and a 12-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition after an SUV crashed into their horse-drawn buggy on a country road in Van Buren County.

Just a week earlier, a 27-year-old Amish man died after a vehicle plowed into his horse-drawn carriage on March 3 in rural Gladwin County.

A total of 261 such crashes killed 18 people in Michigan between 2016 and 2023, the most recent year data is available from the Michigan State Police.

Now, a $70,000 effort is underway in southwest Michigan to try to prevent crashes between motor vehicles and buggies, and a State Police official said similar work could happen elsewhere in the state in the future.

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“Since up until now, the OHSP hasn't had a grant focused on Amish safety, this was a new realm, but we definitely saw a need for it,” Quinn Passmore, who works on issues of vulnerable roadway users for the State Police’s Office of Highway Safety Planning, said in an email to Bridge Michigan.

The first such grant went in the fall to the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency, which has worked since October to convene law enforcement, health care officials, road officials, driver’s education leaders, and Amish bishops to map out ways to stop vehicle-buggy crashes. The group seeks a 15% reduction in crashes by the end of September.

In those three counties between 2016 and 2023, 78 crashes killed four people — that’s 30% of all Michigan vehicle-buggy crashes and 22% of Michigan deaths from such crashes. 

While the work remains in its early stages, the grant has funded billboards and video ads at gas station pumps around the region warning motorists to be on the watch for horse-drawn buggies and carriages, said Kris Dewey, health education and promotions supervisor for the health agency. Radio spots should start soon.

The group also has spoken to Amish bishops about making their horses and buggies more visible to passing motorists.

“We are on target with our objectives, but, again, we’re building first,” Dewey said. “It’s been a very good collaboration with the bishops in the community and they’ve been very helpful in providing to us feedback from the community.”

What’ll happen next is yet to be determined, Dewey said, though Passmore said tackling distracted driving will be a focus.

“A large concern to all people on the roadways is distracted driving, but it's more so for the Amish,” Passmore said in the email to Bridge. “Slow moving vehicles stand no chance against a motored vehicle attempting to make a quick and brash stop. Buggies are allowed the same roads and have the same rules as all drivers and need to be respected of their space on our roads.” 

Michigan law grants horse-drawn vehicles all the rights and responsibilities of other vehicles on the roadway.

Passmore told Bridge the efforts in southwest Michigan could reveal strategies that might work elsewhere in the state, but the State Police also are open to other communities applying for grants to approach things their own way.

“It's a work in progress,” Passmore said in the email. “We want to see the progression of this first grant and view data to see if the support and extra efforts were helpful in the issue. However, the OHSP has a small group currently working on other ways to target the Amish/Motorist population within the state. Hopefully within the next two years we can see more statewide efforts; however, we welcome anyone to apply in the other areas sooner.”