STARK COUNTY, Ohio — A Stark County mom is calling for the addition of designated Amish buggy lanes on rural Ohio roads following the death of her son.
Mom Dawna Wensel said her 19-year-old son Zachary was kind, hardworking and had his whole life ahead of him.
"He would've given the shirt off of his back in a second, even if he didn't have one," she said. "That was just the kind of person he was."
All of it came to a halt when he was riding his motorcycle along a Holmes County road in March 2024.
"He was coming up over a hill," Wensel said. "When he got to the top of the hill, there was an SUV following a buggy. The report showed that he had less than 100 feet to have a reaction time. He had no other choice but to go into the SUV."
The crash left him with a traumatic brain injury, and his mom said it took away his independence.
"He couldn't work, which was huge to Zachary," Wensel said. "He was just sitting here, basically miserable all the time."
After a year of trying to work through his injuries, he committed suicide this past March.
"We paid the ultimate sacrifice so no other parents have to do this," Wensel said.
Wensel immediately got to work and has spent the last seven months researching Ohio buggy accidents.
It all led to Zachary's law, which calls for the creation of designated buggy lanes along roads with speeds of 55 miles per hour or more.
"There are people who are going 55 miles per hour or 60," Wensel said. "Then, you have horses and buggies, which are going five to 10 miles per hour. They are bottle necked together, and it just doesn't work anymore."
Wensel sees her proposed law being applied in Ohio counties with large Amish populations. She said this is not an attack on any one community. It is an action to keep everyone safe.
"It's not just about the motorist or the Amish person," she said. "It's everybody. We just want everybody to come home at night."
Wensel is now reaching out to the Ohio Department of Transportation and state lawmakers about her proposal. While she has received little response so far, she said she's still putting in the work to make Zachary's Law a reality.
"I feel like if this was done years ago," she said. "Zachary might still be here."
Right now, there is a petition on Change.org. It currently has more than 4,000 signatures. To sign it or learn more, click here.
