Amish Clash Over Orange Traffic Signs

When Dan Hershberger sees orange, he sees red.

And that, in essence, is why Hershberger, an Amish farmer from nearby Canton, was ordered by a state judge here Monday to perform five hours of community service work.

It is also why Hershberger’s like-named neighbor, Gideon Hershberger, served seven days behind bars last month and why another two dozen of their Amish brethren may also do time or suffer other punishment before the year is out.

The Hershbergers and several others in southeastern Minnesota’s traditional Amish community are embroiled in a church-state conflict that grows out of their refusal to abide by a minor state traffic law. The statute requires the Amish to equip the horse-drawn carts and buggies they drive with triangular orange caution signs.

Authorities say the reflective signs, universal symbols that designate slow moving vehicles, serve as a prudent visual warning to faster moving traffic--especially at night. But the Amish, who shun not only cars, but also 20th-Century dress, telephones, electricity and other conveniences, see the brightly colored emblems as a garish imposition of the modern culture that their faith tells them to reject.

Invasion by Outside World

“The Amish view the orange triangle on a stark black buggy as a symbol of an invasion of the outside world,” said William Lindholm, executive director of the Michigan-based National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom. “It is like coming into a church or synagogue and putting up swastikas.”

Not only does the controversy pit members of the stern Mennonite sect against the law, it has triggered a serious rift in the once close-knit Amish settlement itself as members feud over the morality of warning signs.

Opposition to the fluorescent signs is by no means unanimous among the Amish here. “I prefer to obey the law,” said Elmer Miller, an Amish farmer, as he hitched his orange-signed buggy to a light post in Canton. “It’s just like if a Catholic got a notion to drive his car without a taillight. It does cause trouble.”

Although many of the Amish side with Miller, others have agreed to equip their rigs only with a less ostentatious homemade black and white reflectorized warning banner. The state says that is OK during the day, but not at night or in bad weather.

Families Flee Bickering

Meanwhile, older and more traditional Amish, a small minority of the 70-some families in the area, refuse to use any sign at all. So inflamed have passions become that orange-sign and black-sign factions have split into separate churches and three families recently moved to Michigan to flee the bickering.

Most states have orange sign laws similar to the one that has been on the books in Minnesota for several years. In Minnesota, authorities began enforcing the law among the Amish only after leaders of the group and state legislators agreed to a compromise two years ago that let buggy drivers use the black and white safety signs during the day but required them to switch to orange at night.

But, when some of the Amish balked at the agreement, state highway officers began handing out citations. At a hearing last October, a local judge slapped 18 offenders with $20 fines apiece, but stayed collection of the money as long as the Amish drivers avoided any new tickets. All but the two Hershbergers did.

At a contempt hearing for Gideon Hershberger last month, District Judge Margaret Shaw Johnson ruled that public safety concerns outweighed Hershberger’s religious objections. She gave him the option of paying a $150 fine, performing alternative community service or going to jail. Calling himself a “conscientious objector,” Hershberger chose jail.

Dan Hershberger, who is no relation to Gideon, opted for the community work when he was given the same choice by Judge O. Russell Olson at a hearing Monday. Meanwhile, another 24 Amish drivers, cited earlier in the year for sign infractions, have been given until Nov. 30 to settle their cases with fines, alternative service or jail.

Fought Health Laws

This is not the first time members of the reclusive religious group have clashed with authorities over the right to be different. Amish have fought health laws in Canada, Ohio and Indiana requiring them to use electricity in processing milk. In 1972, Amish parents won a landmark legal battle over compulsory education, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not force them to send their children to high school.

There also have been previous orange sign controversies. In 1983, five Amish drivers in Upstate New York each spent a day in jail for refusing to mount the reflectors on buggies, combines and hay wagons. In Michigan, three Amish farmers are still appealing orange sign tickets issued to them eight years ago. David Dreyer, a lawyer for the three, said many Amish may leave Michigan rather than comply with a law they consider offensive, if state courts reject the appeal.

A few states have bowed to some Amish objections. Both Ohio and Kentucky, while still requiring warning signs on slow vehicles, allow around-the-clock use of black and white reflectors. Lindholm, a Lutheran minister who heads the Amish support group, said the Ohio and Kentucky laws should set a precedent for other states.

“If there is not a grave danger and alternative means are just as safe, the government is obligated to recognize religious freedom rather than the letter of the law,” saidLindholm, whose organization provides legal aid to many Amish who refuse, as a matter of principle, to represent their own interests in court.

But law enforcement officials question whether alternate markings provide an adequate margin of safety to faster moving vehicles. “On unlit country roads when the Amish are driving 10 m.p.h. and you’re doing 55 m.p.h., it can be a big problem for you,” said Gary Jarvis, an undersheriff in New York’s St. Lawrence County, where slow moving buggies have been involved in several accidents.

Share Busy Highways

Mathew Opat, the local prosecutor in the Minnesota cases, said Amish drivers share busy highways with cross-country motorists who may be unaware of the local controversy and unfamiliar with the meaning of alternate safety symbols.

So far this year, Opat said, Amish buggies have been involved in two local accidents--one in daylight hours in which a car came over the crest of a hill and rear-ended a buggy, and another at night when an Amish driver fell asleep at the reins and veered into oncoming traffic. No one was seriously hurt in the mishaps, although a horse was killed in the second accident.

Bob Secter reported from Minnesota and Rhonda Bergman from Chicago.