Several Amish people have had severe problems with “English” motorists while driving their buggies along rural Pennsylvania roads recently.

On Monday, May 5, Evan Byler, a 22 year old Amish man, was the victim of a hit-and-run accident on a rural highway east of Greenville, in Mercer County, the northwestern corner of the state. When his buggy was hit from behind by an unknown vehicle, he was thrown 50 feet, and his horse was killed. Mr. Byler was flown to the intensive care unit of the St. Elizabeth Trauma Center in Youngstown, Ohio, where he was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday to treat his injuries.

The driver of the vehicle that hit the buggy fled the scene, but police are asking anyone in the area who sees a car with extensive damage to its front and possibly its side to contact them.

A week earlier, on Monday, April 28, in the southeastern corner of the state, an Amish man from eastern Lancaster County was operating his buggy on a rural road west of the town of Gap when three men jumped out of a car and attempted to rob him. Police did not indicate what if anything they stole from Reuben Stolzfus, the victim of the attack, or if he was injured. The police did say that the robbers were driving a black, sporty-looking sedan and that one of them wore a ski mask. The masked robber held a gun.

The previous Friday, April 25, Lancaster County judge Jeffrey Wright sentenced a young man to prison for assisting in two earlier robberies of some Amish people while they were driving their buggies along rural roads. When he sentenced the defendant, Charles Lewis of Rising Sun, Maryland, he gave the 19-year-old a tongue lashing. “You knew they wouldn’t fight back. You’re not just a thief, you are a cowardly thief,” the judge said.