To the Editor:

If you really want to decrease accidents with Amish buggies, then get the unlicensed, uninsured, aggravated-driving without a license, speeding, dangerous drivers, those who feel road rage and the useless need to express it, off the roads!

An accident with an Amish buggy could have been something much smaller and has been too often; someone walking along the road, a relative, neighbor, child, or even someone you don’t know. If one can’t see an Amish buggy and avoid it, let alone someone just walking down the road, they should not be driving, period.

The Amish we’ve encountered around the county have their buggies properly marked and lit after dark with a lantern and very easily seen reflective tapes. Any culture is going to have a few dummies, and the Amish aren’t immune from it, but our experience shows that they do follow the laws, rules and regulations. In other words, they do adhere to the rules of the road, in our experience.

But I’ve seen vehicles blow horns, accelerate hard getting by them, tossing them the finger, coming dangerously close to the horses after passing, and in general not even slowing down to pass a slow moving vehicle. It’s the same thing with farm machinery, of which there is much right now, but cruel drivers are at least smart enough to not “argue” with something that could kill them.

As for their droppings in the road, it’s nothing but vegetables - horses do not eat meat. It’s not going to harm a vehicle or cause anywhere near the dangers a farmer creates when he fills the road with mud from working a field, which is slippery, incapable of allowing traction to the road, and really messes up the looks of a vehicle.

The Amish we’ve met are friendly, helpful, and good people, just from a different culture than ours, as is any non-native to out area.

So next time you meet up with a buggy, Amish or otherwise, please be patient, pass them safely, and don’t express any disdain for human or animal life simply because they’re different than you are.

Tom Rivet

Heuvelton