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Safety concerns outweigh beliefs

Friday, June 07, 2002

By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

EBENSBURG, Pa. -- In a case pitting religious freedom against highway safety, a judge yesterday rebuffed a fledgling, 80-member Amish community -- a group that, after more than two dozen traffic citations, doggedly spurns state-mandated reflective orange triangles for its black buggies.

Using the emblems means placing faith in symbols, an indignity to God, pro bono lawyers for the Amish argued.

Not displaying them invites highway tragedy, prosecutors replied.

In an 11-page order crafted after two days of testimony, Cambria County Judge Timothy Creany stood by the orange triangles as the only safe way to mark the horse-drawn buggies.

With that, he rejected a plea that Pennsylvania join eight other states in a compromise allowing this austere branch of the Amish to forgo triangles and outline the backs on their buggies with less obtrusive gray reflective tape.

"On the basis of all testimony offered, the gray reflective tape is not as effective as the [orange] emblem over the spectrum of situations," Creany wrote. "The safety of the traveling public, both those within the Amish community and those in the communities surrounding them, cannot be served by the alternative, which the Amish suggest is less burdensome on their religious beliefs."

Four years after they arrived in Cambria County, members say this nine-decade-old branch called Swartzentruber Amish will leave Pennsylvania, possibly returning to friendlier traffic laws in their native Ohio rather than acquiesce.

For now, though, nobody's packing.

Attorney Donna Doblick of Reed Smith, representing the Amish, guaranteed an appeal to state Superior Court. Assistant District Attorney Heath Long said it is unlikely to be heard this year.

If the appeal fails, Doblick promises to petition the state Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, advocates for the Amish are watching legislation, proposed by state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown, allowing the gray strips as an alternative to orange triangles. The measure is part of a larger transit bill in a state House committee.

Lawyers for the Amish argued that Pennsylvania demands that the Swartzentrubers violate their religion. The law also weighs on their freedoms of expression and association -- leaving them to be shunned by fellow Swartzentrubers if they knuckle under to the commonwealth, attorneys said.

Amishman Levi Zook's claims of the severity of the religious affront were "entirely credible and unfeigned," Creany wrote. For the state to consider fettering religious freedom, the judge said, it first needs a compelling interest.

Creany found that safety was the compelling interest. And based on expert testimony, the gray tape -- judged equal to the orange triangle in the glare of headlights -- wasn't as visible or recognizable to daytime motorists, the judge said.

That left the tape short of being a suitable alternative, he wrote.

"He seems to ignore that they are a viable alternative as evidenced by the fact that other states allow it," Doblick said.

What's more, there's no evidence of increased traffic mishaps involving Swartzentruber buggies, and the triangles aren't mandated for vehicles like garbage trucks that plod in traffic, Doblick told the court last month.

"They were asking the judge to disregard the law," Long countered.

In one respect, Doblick may have struck a chord with Creany.

"No one should have to choose between worshipping God in the way they see fit and living in Pennsylvania," she told him in a closing argument two weeks ago.

Indeed, if the Swartzentrubers left, "it would weigh heavily on this court," Creany wrote in yesterday's opinion.

"The court admires the lifestyles of this community and accepts that the sincere religious beliefs of these individuals have caused them to follow a life that would be much too difficult for many outside the community to adopt," he wrote.