• A 4-month-old girl died today when the horse-drawn buggy in which she was riding was struck by a truck
  • Such crashes killed 18 Michiganders between 2016 and 2023
  • A $70,000 state grant in Branch, Hillsdale, and St. Joseph counties will fund efforts to prevent vehicle collisions with horse-drawn buggies and carriages

A 4-month-old girl died on Wednesday from injuries suffered when a truck struck a horse-drawn buggy she was riding in, police said, highlighting ongoing safety concerns about such vehicles.

Four other children and two adults in the buggy also were injured in the Tuesday crash on M-91 in Montcalm Township, about 35 northeast of Grand Rapids. 

Their buggy was struck by a truck whose driver tried to pass it, saw an oncoming vehicle and swerved back. The horse had to be killed, police said.

Tuesday’s Montcalm County crash happened as the state works in three nearby counties to develop methods to reduce the number of buggy crashes.

Such crashes killed 18 people in Michigan between 2016 and 2023, according to the most recent data from the Michigan State Police. That prompted a $70,000 effort in southwest Michigan to improve safety.

“We definitely saw a need for it,” said Quinn Passmore, who works on issues of vulnerable roadway users for the State Police’s Office of Highway Safety Planning, told Bridge earlier this year.

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The grant went in the fall to the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency, which has worked since October to convene law enforcement, health care officials, road officials, driver education leaders and Amish bishops to map ways to stop vehicle-buggy crashes. The group seeks a 15% reduction in crashes by the end of next month.

About 30% of all Michigan vehicle-buggy crashes and 22% of deaths from such crashes happened in those counties. 

The grant has paid for billboards and video ads at gas station pumps around the region warning motorists to be on the watch for horse-drawn buggies and carriages, said Kris Dewey, health education and promotions supervisor for the health agency.

The group also has spoken to Amish bishops about making their horses and buggies more visible to passing motorists.

“It’s been a very good collaboration with the bishops in the community and they’ve been very helpful in providing to us feedback from the community,” Dewey said to Bridge this year.

Michigan has the sixth-largest Amish population in the nation, about 20,000, and has battled with buggy-car crashes for years.

Michigan law grants horse-drawn vehicles all the rights and responsibilities of other vehicles on the roadway. State law requires buggies to display orange safety triangles, but other requirements — including a proposal for buggy registries — have gone nowhere.

Passmore told Bridge the awareness efforts in southwest Michigan could reveal strategies that might work elsewhere in the state, but the State Police also are open to other communities applying for grants to approach things their own way.

The Montcalm County crash happened the same week a pickup truck went through a stop sign in Tuscola County and hit a van carrying 10 people, including several members of a local Amish community. A total of 13 people were in the two vehicles and six were killed, police said.

Since Memorial Day in Michigan, a carriage caught fire in Frankenmuth when it was struck by a car, two children riding a buggy were seriously injured in Isabella County and a carriage driver was injured in a hit-and-run in Sanilac County.

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