Amish Teacher, 29, Killed In Buggy Crash While Riding With Two Of Her Students (Illinois)

Another tragic crash, this time out of Illinois. A 29-year-old Amish schoolteacher was killed Tuesday morning in a buggy crash in Wayne County, Illinois. Two of her students were riding with her. They were flown to a hospital with serious injuries.

The crash was reported at around 7:09 a.m. on County Highway 16, west of the village of Johnsonville, according to WFIW radio in Fairfield. It sounds like this may have been a teacher bringing two of the schoolchildren in for the school day with her.

Amish schools are very localized. The teachers live nearby the schoolhouses they teach at, and the schoolchildren, or “scholars” as the Amish often call them, also live in the general area around the school. You typically attend the school nearest to you, which comes into play especially in larger communities.

The Teacher & Two Children

WFIE 14 News, citing the local Wayne County Press, identified the woman killed as Rebecca Esh, a 29-year-old Amish schoolteacher.

Both children were flown to a hospital in Evansville, Indiana with serious injuries, according to WFIE. Their ages, identities and current conditions have not been reported. If they were getting a ride to school, they are likely not older than 14.

Just a sad case here.  A young woman has lost her life, and she would be someone well-known in the community as one of the school teachers.

Amish teachers are typically young women, doing the job for a few years, often even starting in their teens and going into their early twenties. Getting married often brings an end to a school teaching career. Teachers are typically well-liked by their scholars.

Rebecca Esh was in her late twenties, which makes me suspect she had been teaching for a while. Prayers and condolences to her family and community.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, Wayne County Ambulance, and the Cisne Fire Department responded to this wreck. An Illinois State Police accident reconstructionist assisted at the scene, and I believe that is what you are seeing in the photo at top via the Wayne County Press.

They have not released details on how the crash happened or on the other vehicles involved. The crash remains under investigation.

Wayne County, in southeastern Illinois, is home to three Amish settlements. The largest is at Johnsonville, with approximately 335 people in two church districts. It appears that might be the community the teacher and schoolchildren belonged to.

I have been getting asked about there seeming to be a spate of bad buggy wrecks lately. I don’t have a way of telling if more are happening, or if more are simply being reported. But this crash does follow a string of serious buggy wrecks in recent weeks, some fatal.

In New York, a van struck two buggies carrying nine children earlier this month, killing a brother and sister, twelve days after a pickup truck crash killed a grandmother and her grandson in another community in the state. In Ohio, an Amish woman was killed and two passengers airlifted after a pickup rear-ended her buggy in early September. And in Wisconsin, also this month, a driver fled after hitting a buggy carrying four children.