Three Young Amish Children Killed After Drunk Driver Plowed Into Their Family’s Horse-Drawn Buggy, Police Say
Three young Amish children were killed when a drunk driver crashed into their family’s horse-drawn buggy as it rode along the side of a Michigan highway.
Police say the 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 6-year-old were killed after a pickup truck rear-ended the buggy on the road just outside of Battle Creek. As ABC News reported, all seven people inside the buggy — two adults and five children — were thrown on impact, and two young children died on the scene. Another child, a 4-year-old, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and was later declared dead, Fox 8 confirmed.
The relation between the children and the adults inside the buggy was not reported. Police said the driver of the pickup truck was intoxicated and was taken to the Branch County Jail.
The area where the crash took place is home to a large Amish population, the ABC News report noted. Michigan has the sixth-largest population of Amish across the country, the report added.
This is not the first story of an Amish-related accident to garner national attention. There have been a number of other accidents, sometimes fatal, on rural roads that are shared by drivers and horse-drawn buggies. As ABC News noted, one took place not far from this weekend’s crash in Michigan.
“Last month, a car hit a horse-drawn carriage in California Township, Michigan, about 40 minutes south of Marshall. The driver fled, but no one in the buggy was seriously injured, state police said,” the report noted.
Back in 2016, police in Pennsylvania arrested an Amish teenager on charges that he was driving his buggy while drunk. As Fox 43 reported, police pulled over the buggy driven by 18-year-old Robert Miller after seeing two people riding on the roof. Inside the buggy, police reportedly found two open cans of beer and 20 unopened cans.
Police spoke to the passengers in the buggy, who reportedly admitted that they had been drinking. All four passengers inside the two-seat buggy were under the age of 11, the report noted.
A blood draw would show that Miller had been drinking beyond the legal limit, police said.
“Miller was placed under arrest for suspicion of DUI and consented to a blood draw that resulted in a.065% BAC, which is above the.02% limit for a minor,” the report noted.
Three young children are dead after a pickup truck drove into the back of an Amish horse-drawn carriage. #9Newshttps://t.co/awa1kUMdfR
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 9, 2019
Officials in Michigan have not named the children killed in the crash or released the name of the alleged drunk driver who crashed into their horse-drawn buggy. The crash remains under investigation.
