11-Year-Old Amish Boy Seriously Injured After Buggy Pulls Into Path Of Oncoming SUV
It’s believed that an 11-year-old Amish boy pulled out into oncoming traffic, resulting in a serious accident in Gladwin County, Michigan on Wednesday morning.
According to police the boy’s view was obscured. Here’s more from ABC 12:
The crash happened just after 10 a.m. on McCulloch Rd., about a quarter-mile north of Lang Road in Beaverton Township.
According to the Gladwin County Sheriff’s Office, an 11-year-old boy, who was occupying the buggy, was exiting a driveway of a private residence on McCulloch when he was hit by a 79-year-old woman driving a Buick Enclave.
Police say that due to vegetation at the end of the driveway near the road, the 11-year-old was unable to see vehicles traveling north on McCulloch Road and pulled out of the driveway, where he and the horse were hit by the SUV.
Many drivers know firsthand that visual obstructions on the road, like vegetation, signs, poles, and trees, can cause a problem when trying to pull out into traffic. It’s not clear which drive the buggy pulled out of, or if it’s even visible here, but there appears to be a decent amount of roadside vegetation here:
And if you’ve only got one or two horsepower to accelerate out into a lane, it makes it that much more dangerous a situation.
The boy was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The horse did not survive the wreck. You can see by the position of the buggy in these photos, debris on the road, and damage to the car, that it was quite an impact.
This is another Michigan buggy wreck, following a bad one, one week ago – and another one out of Gladwin County. We’ve covered wrecks in the county including an alleged drunk driver who put two Amish in the hospital over July 4th, and a semi that struck two buggies at once, also in Beaverton Township.
However this time, it appears this one was no fault of the motor vehicle driver. That contrasts with the study we looked at back in April, which found that 76% of cause-reported buggy crashes are the fault of car drivers.
The driver of the SUV was taken to hospital as well, with “non-life-threatening injuries”. Please keep them in your prayers and especially that the boy will pull through.
Common sense would tell you that the view at the end of a lane should be cleared for a safe passage. And the poor horse didn’t have a choice.