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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

Marie McHarry wrote:
>  On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 8:08 PM, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
>
>   
> > The shoulders of the roadway were specifically widened for the buggy
> > drivers.
> >     
> > Near Arthur, Illinois, where there is a large Amish population, there
> > is a buggy track along side of the state highways.
> >     
Actually, on a serious note, most places where numbers of buggies 
(whether Amish/Mennonite/Breithren) use the public roads, there has been 
a right-side addition so that buggies can drive off to the right at 
least a half lane, so cars can speed along without impediment. It also 
helps prevent grooving of the highways, which is pretty hard on 
motorcylists.  Eastern PA, where they depend on the Amish for a large 
part of their tourism 'charm', is about the only place I know where 
there are high numbers of buggies duking it out with traffic.  (But hey, 
that's why they get hydraulic brakes and electric windshield wipers on 
their buggies!).   It does help, but certainly doesn't, as Gene noted 
earlier, prevent some very serious accidents.

In fact, I spent 2 months last summer providing nursing care to the 
daughter of a friend who was in a buggy, at night,properly lit, stopped 
at a stop sign by a busy road (Allen County, IN).  Six kids in the 
buggy, singing hymns as they went home from an evening of hymn-singing, 
saw nothing coming.  Proceeded across, were hit.  Julie has serious 
brain damage; the rest somehow were thrown free and will recover from 
some fairly serious injuries.  Was a mystery until the aunt of the 
person who hit them let the cat out of the bag:  the person who hit them 
was driving without headlights. 

There is no protection from fools, common sense/laws/no matter.

Susan Jane