Keywords
Amish; Lighting and marking; Animal-drawn vehicle; Low-profile vehicle; Pony cart; Slow-moving vehicle
Abstract
Lighting and marking recommendations for animal-drawn buggies and wagons were first established in 2001 through an American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Engineering Practice, EP576.1. Many Anabaptist communities who primarily rely on animal-drawn vehicles utilize this practice for marking their buggies and wagons; however they do not utilize the practice for their low-profile vehicles, such as pony carts. Visibility for pony carts on public roads is important to protect the operators, typically women and children. Following a series of tragic deaths in their community, the Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, Amish safety committee raised the concern of having a consistent lighting and marking scheme for these low-profile vehicles. They also called for an additional aerial device to boost the cart's visibility to the motoring public. This project took approximately two years to develop consensus among Anabaptist stakeholders and members of the professional engineering society. The result of this effort was a revised Engineering Practice, EP576.2, which enhanced the previous recommendations to include consistent lighting and marking of low-profile animal-drawn vehicles.
Acknowledgements
This study was completed by The Ohio State University’s Agricultural Safety and Health program using federal allocations from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The authors would like to acknowledge the Amish safety committee in Holmes and Wayne Counties, Ohio, for initiating the project, safety committees in both Elkhart and LaGrange Counties, Indiana, and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in addition to those attending the national meeting of Amish safety committees. The authors further acknowledge the efforts of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE) Machinery Systems (MS-23/4/3) – Lighting and Marking committee.
Recommended Citation
Jepsen, S. Dee, and Andrew 'Dewey' Mann. 2015. "Efforts to Improve Roadway Safety: A Collaborative Approach between Amish Communities and a Professional Engineering Society." Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 3(2):151-74.
ISSN
2471-6383