In the 1960s, the Swartzentrubers — one of the most conservative subgroups of Old Order Amish — worked out a deal with the Ohio government: instead of marking their vehicles with an orange slow moving vehicle emblem and bright battery-operated blinkers, they would instead stick reflective tape on their buggies and use kerosene lanterns as headlights.
That agreement stood for decades.
But about two years ago, in response to mounting safety concerns, the state passed a new law requiring animal-drawn vehicles to bear a flashing yellow light to increase their visibility.
State Sen. Nickie Antonio spoke in support of House Bill 30 on the senate floor in 2022.
“Often, the place that I see horse and buggies is as I’m driving on 71 and they’re crossing the bridge above me. But every time I see one, I think how scary that has to be to be in that horse and buggy and go against a car,” she said. “We heard really tragic stories in committee, and the best part of all the information we were given is that there is a simple solution.”
The bill passed the senate unanimously and was signed into law a few weeks later.
But some conservative members of the Amish community were not on board. In the years since, many have refused to add the lights to their buggies.
Now, three members of the Swartzentruber Amish and one member of the similarly conservative Kenton sect are suing the state, arguing the law violates their right to religious freedom.
In November, the Hardin County Common Pleas Court handed them a small victory: a temporary restraining order blocking the enforcement of the law until a full trial in July.
An effort to improve buggy safety
Between 2009 and 2019, there were 723 crashes in Ohio involving buggies, according to a study by the state Department of Transportation. More than a dozen people died and 132 faced incapacitating injuries.
The study found people are more likely to be killed or seriously hurt in a buggy crash than in a car crash because buggies lack safety features like airbags and seatbelts, and because they travel significantly slower than the cars that are likely to hit them.
In fact, most buggy accidents happen on state routes, where cars travel in excess of 55 mph and buggies travel at speeds much slower.
“The State has determined, through years of studying car-buggy crashes, that the primary cause of those crashes is the speed differential between motor vehicles and horse-drawn vehicles,” lawyers for the state argued in defense of the law, according to court documents. “Motorists have only a few seconds to recognize that the object ahead of them is a buggy and abruptly slow down.”
Reflective tape and lanterns aren’t enough, the state’s attorneys said. Although they work well at night, they do little to catch a driver’s attention during the day, when most accidents involving buggies occur.
Flashing yellow lights, the lawyers argued, are more effective.
“The State has determined that yellow is a color associated by motorists with caution, and that most motorists tend to lift off the throttle pedal, almost subconsciously, when they see a flashing yellow light,” court documents say.
But members of Ohio’s most conservative Amish groups are unwilling to go against tradition to adopt the lights, leading to confrontations with law enforcement.
The argument against flashing lights
Cory Anderson is a sociologist who studies Amish and Mennonite communities. He’s Mennonite himself and has been closely following the law’s enforcement.
According to his count, more than 220 people, almost all Swartzentrubers, have been ticketed for violating the traffic law in the two years since it was signed into law.
“The state began to really hunker down and start handing out lots and lots of citations, as if specifically targeting the Swartzentruber Amish who were the ones who object to electrifying their buggies,” Anderson said.
In one instance, body camera footage shows an officer in Ashland County walking up to an unlit buggy.
“Have you gotten a ticket yet?” the officer asked.
“Yeah, I’ve gotten one already,” the driver responded. “I’ll take another one.”
“That’s not really the problem,” the officer said. “I think I’m going to tow your buggy, unless you got a light in there.”
The young Amish man was undeterred.
“Tow it if you want,” he responded, “but I’m not paying it.”
That’s a sentiment shared by many members of the Swartzentruber sect, Anderson explained.
“Many who are getting ticketed are not paying the fine,” he said. “And for them, they would see that as an admission of guilt.”
Through hand-written letters, they’ve pleaded with the state to change the law and with the courts not to enforce it. They say electrifying their buggies would violate long-held traditions and religious beliefs, and if forced to choose between man’s law or God’s, they’re going with God.
“In our lifestyle we try to live the traditions of our forefathers, which is based on the Bible,” one letter writer explains. “We realize that once a tradition or ordnance based on the Bible is lost, it will never return, hence we have a deterioration of the church.”
Another, Emery Troyer, says, “We should have faith in God and trust that he protects us if it is his will. I am afraid if I start using the flashing light on my buggy, it would do me more harm spiritually, as I could end up having more trust in the flashing light to protect me than in God.”
After watching Swartzentrubers interact with the legal system, Anderson connected the church’s leaders with Harvard Law School’s Religious Freedom Clinic, which is now representing members of the community in a lawsuit against the state. Anderson says their decision to pursue legal action shows just how seriously the group takes this issue.
“The Swartzentruber Amish are extremely hesitant to solicit legal help, but prefer to be defenseless Christians,” Anderson said. “Much like Jesus taught to turn the other cheek, they also want to turn the other cheek and not hire lawyers to go after people. They haven't gone out and solicited this, but the fact that they have been willing to accept pro bono legal assistance from Harvard Law School's Religious Freedom Clinic was not a step taken lightly.”
Steven Burnett, a clinical instructional fellow at the clinic, says there’s not much evidence that the yellow light substantially improves safety, and says the light doesn’t prevent contributing causes of crashes like distracted driving.
“We don't think that the safety concern is big enough to override the religious freedom concerns,” he said.
But not all Amish agree with the Swartzentrubers’ stance.
The Amish case for flashing lights
As the Ohio state director of the Amish Steering Committee, Wayne Wengerd acts as a liaison between the state’s Amish communities and the state and federal governments.
He belongs to a church that’s more progressive than the Swartzentrubers’, and says most of Ohio’s Amish started using flashing yellow lights years before the new law went into effect.
His own buggy is illuminated with reflective tape, the orange slow moving vehicle emblem and red tail lights, in addition to the flashing yellow light.
“Obviously,” he said, “we believe these lights are effective because we use them.”
And he’s far from alone in this belief. As lawmakers were considering the passage of House Bill 30, even a few conservative Swartzentrubers wrote anonymous letters in support of its passage.
“I’ve been hit twice,” one letter writer described. “The first time was from a young boy. He looked down to adjust his channel. The last time was from a good old guy in daylight. I was in the shade. The buggy was black and the road was also black with a fresh rain. I was almost invisible. Since then, I have a big fear to be on the road.”
“I never want to be hit again. And you never want to hit someone.”
This internal disagreement in the Amish community — between younger, more progressive members of the faith, and those who prefer to hold firmly to tradition — is at the heart of the current lawsuit.
“It's not just about the flashing light,” Burnett said. “It's about the adoption of new technology and getting the state to help control, if you will, the community into adopting or maybe liberalizing their strict standards.”
Whether or not the law will stand is yet to be decided: a trial is scheduled for July.
