Amish Girl Dies After Being Run Over By Wagon Loaded With Corn (Wisconsin)

Another tragic farm accident has claimed a young Amish person’s life. A 15-year-old girl in Vernon County, Wisconsin has died after being run over by a wagon loaded with corn. From the Vernon Reporter:

WESTBY, Wis. — A 15-year-old Amish girl died Friday, Nov. 14 after being run over by a wagon in a farm-related accident in Vernon County, authorities said.

Sheriff Roy Torgerson reported that the incident occurred around 11 a.m. on private property near Anderson Road in the Town of Clinton. The girl was riding on a horse-drawn, two-wheel forecart with a standing-only platform, driven by an 18-year-old male from rural Westby.

According to the sheriff’s office, the horses became startled when the driver threw a rock from the cart that had been removed from the field.

The girl fell to the ground and was run over by a wagon attached to the forecart. The wagon was loaded with ear corn picked from the field.

The girl was flown to a hospital but died later in the afternoon.

Vernon County, WI is home to all or parts of five separate Amish settlements. This accident happened in an area (Town of Clinton) which would make it part of the Cashton community, Wisconsin’s largest Amish settlement.

The Forecart

As noted, the girl was riding on a forecart. A forecart is used as an “intermediary” between the team of horses and the larger farm equipment that it is pulling, like a wagon, or implements like a plow or manure spreader.

You can see examples of them in these photos – the two wheeled-platform that the farmers are standing upon:

Some of them will have a seat, like in the second photo above. But as noted, in this accident it was a “standing-only” cart, and it sounds like you had at least two people on it, the 18-year-old driver and the girl.

The wagon would have large metal wheels, like what you can see in the above photos. And if loaded with corn, it would have been carrying a great amount of weight, in addition to the great weight of the wagon itself. Many thousands of pounds in total.

This photo below illustrates the danger best. There is no back protection on these – so if the cart jerks forward, and you lose your grip and fall off the back of that platform, you’re just a few feet from those wheels bearing that massive load forward.

Dangers of Amish Farm Life

It’s normal in Amish culture for farm teens to be handling jobs like these, and at these ages, especially the 18-year-old, they likely had years of experience at it.

But it’s also not uncommon that Amish people die from farm accidents. Earlier this year, an Amish man was run over by a loaded wagon likely weighing over 10,000 pounds. Also this year, an Amish boy was killed while discing a field. Earlier this month, a pregnant Amish woman lost her life when she was kicked by a horse while milking a cow.

Some outsiders look at the Amish and imagine a bucolic existence. But the reality is that while there are many pleasant and nice things about small family farms, there are also ever-present dangers.

Growing up on a farm, children are taught directly, and also learn by osmosis what to be careful about. But that won’t eliminate all dangerous or deadly occurrences of course.

This poor girl and her family. It’s possible or even likely that she was related to the driver (the obvious connection would be siblings) though we don’t know that for sure. They have hard days ahead. May they weather them with support from their community and their faith.

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