Amish sent to jail for safety violations

MAYFIELD, Ky., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A Kentucky judge sentenced nine Amish men to jail Monday after they refused to pay fines for not using orange safety triangles on the back of their buggies.

District Judge Deborah Hawkins Crooks ordered the Western Kentucky men be jailed for three to 10 days, The (Louisville) Courier Journal reported.

The men, who belong to a particularly strict Amish sect in Graves County, said paying the fines violated their religious beliefs against wearing bright colors or trusting in man-made symbols for their safety.

A friend paid the fine for one of the men so that he could care for an ailing son, the newspaper said. The other eight men reported to jail Monday night.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals in June denied the defendants' appeal of their misdemeanor convictions for failing to follow a state law that requires the safety triangles on slow-moving vehicles.

The men have appealed to the state Supreme Court.