By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — According to Michigan State Police’s traffic crash reporting system, at least 78 of the 261 known crashes involving the Amish community in the state between 2016 and 2023 have been reported in St. Joseph, Branch and Hillsdale counties.
To try to combat the problem, a program in the last couple of years through the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency (BHSJ) has been looking to reduce traffic crashes and injuries in the Amish community through awareness, education, and collaboration with local agencies.
That program, which is funded through a grant with the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP), was outlined during Wednesday, July 2’s St. Joseph County Road Commission meeting.
Kris Dewey, the supervisor for health education and promotion at BHSJ, said the project’s overall goals were to reduce crashes involving Amish buggies by 15 percent by Sept. 30 of this year, increase awareness of the Amish in the driving community, and improve roadway signage and encourage planning efforts in roadway design to improve safety.
To accomplish those goals, Dewey said BHSJ has been working with 22 Amish bishops in St. Joseph County, as well as five each in Branch and Hillsdale counties, as well as developing culturally-appropriate educational materials to both the Amish and English communities. This includes developing a drivers’ manual with the bishops and developing a driver’s education program for buggy driving.
“That is basically for the adult population, and it has all the road signs, road rules, and it’s basically an informational booklet. They did ask us to include how to navigate a roundabout, which wasn’t in the original plan, but we’re putting it in,” Dewey said. “We found an Amish driver’s education manual, so we are working with the communities in all three counties to implement this buggy driver’s education program for their youth, because most youth are taught by watching dad drive, and then dad just hands over the reins.”
Dewey said they’re also working with the bishops to determine acceptable safety equipment for horses and buggies, with the goal to be “respectful of their culture” when doing so.
“Our goal is to be respectful of their culture and to work with them to find strategies that will help both and be a win-win for everybody,” Dewey said.
In addition, BHSJ is increasing driver awareness to high-probability areas where a horse and buggy could be encountered, collaborating with local driver’s education programs to highlight the Amish as part of their “vulnerable roadway users” unit and what to do if encountering horses and buggies on the roads, and collaborating with the Michigan State University Extension to educate 4-H equestrian groups about road riding safety strategies and high-visibility tack.
There have also been outdoor billboards and advertising campaigns as part of the program alerting drivers to horse and buggy traffic, saying, “You have more horsepower. So have more patience,” or “You have more horsepower. Share the road.”
In the future, BHSJ plans to work with the road commissions in each of their three counties as well as MDOT on project planning on signage, as well as working with sheriff’s departments for enforcement of speeding and distracted driving.
Survey: Aggressive drivers, sharing road, hills and curves main safety concerns among Amish
Most of the goals, plans, and future strategies BHSJ are using were formulated via a survey distributed to the Amish community via the bishops in the last year.
In St. Joseph County in particular, there were 234 out of 250 surveys returned to BHSJ outlining driving habits, reasons for travel, and safety equipment used. Animal-drawn vehicles, walking, and bicycles/scooters were the top three modes of transport for the Amish community, according to the survey results, with the main reasons for travel being church, shopping/selling, and work/visiting family. The most frequent safety equipment used were SMV signs, LED lights/lanterns, and reflective tape, with turn signals and reflective clothing/helmets also being used.
The survey also asked what the main safety concerns were for Amish drivers, with the main concerns being aggressive drivers, sharing the road, and hills and curves. To the latter concern, Dewey said there have also been concerns about crops being planted too close to intersections during the summer, which can be a major safety issue.
“If you stop and think about it, our car maybe has six feet [in front of them], they have 12 feet because of the horses in front of the buggy,” Dewey said. “For them to be able to see at a corner with high vegetation, they have to pull out farther, which puts their animal at risk.”
Other concerns listed were being seen after dark/dusk, truck traffic, high-beam headlight use by motor vehicles, and rumble strips.
When asked in the survey to note some of the most dangerous sections of road for Amish drivers in the county, the one area most frequently cited was Nottawa Road in Nottawa Township, with the most dangerous intersection being Nottawa Road and M-86.
“There’s a lot of conversation about Nottawa Road and how it’s used as a main thoroughfare. My understanding is there’s a community center on Nottawa Road for the Amish,” Dewey said.
Other dangerous road stretches cited by the Amish include M-86, M-66, Marvin Road, the intersection of M-66 and Marvin Road, the intersection of Wasepi Road and Nottawa Road, the M-86/M-66 interchange, Farrand Road, Lepley Road, Truckenmiller Road, and the intersection of Nottawa Road and Spring Creek Road. Dewey said she hopes this information can provide insight into how to plan future road projects in those areas.
“As you’re going through your standard maintenance and course of review, is there anything, one little change, that can make a difference in the safety of that segment of road,” Dewey said.
One of those areas of concern is expected to be addressed in an upcoming project, as MDOT is planning on building buggy lanes on M-86 and M-66 as part of a project on those roads in 2026 or 2027, as well as putting buggy lanes in a section of U.S. 12 near Mottville.
“At some point, they are planning to put in wider buggy lanes here,” Dewey said, adding that they have set up meetings between MDOT and many of the Amish bishops to talk about the project, and had input from the Amish community about where to put rumble strips and what would make it a safer travel experience for them. “MDOT is going to implement some of those safety strategies, based upon their feedback they got from the community on the project,” Dewey added.
Project ‘breaking ground’ with state
The main purpose of the grant project, Dewey said, was to “educate, inform and empower” both themselves and the Amish community to try to make things safer for them. She said it’s the first project in the state to focus on safety for Amish drivers.
“There have been a lot of individuals that have been reaching out to us from across the state,” Dewey said. “We’re kind of breaking ground here, and we’re still kind of learning our way. This is the first concerted OHSP project toward this in the state.”
Dewey said they have applied for grant funding to continue their efforts going into 2026, where she said they have a “very good chance” at receiving funding. Josh Englebert, health educator for BHSJ, said overall, the project is also helping BHSJ make inroads into the Amish community and is helping to expand the focus of the project.
“The biggest thing through this first year is establishing those relationships, making that handshake with the Amish community. We’re finding out that there’s new things that we can add into the objectives when it comes to the following year, things we didn’t get to focus too much on with this last one,” Englebert said. “The emphasis has been, as Kris said, planting seeds, laying a foundation for this work, and at the end of the day, once again, the response has been pretty great from the Amish community. We’re utilizing that and going from there.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
