2 Amish Women Airlifted In Critical Condition After SUV Rear-Ends Their Buggy (Michigan)

Two Amish women from Montgomery, Michigan, ages 50 and 19, were airlifted from the scene after an SUV rear-ended their buggy Monday morning in Hillsdale County. Both are in critical condition.

From WILX:

The crash happened around 9:15 a.m. on Territorial Road near Mead Road in Camden Township, according to police. Troopers from the Jackson post responded to the scene.

Preliminary investigation indicates the Amish buggy, which was carrying two people, was traveling west on Territorial Road when it was struck from behind by a GMC Terrain driven by a 38-year-old Hillsdale woman.

The two occupants of the buggy, a 50-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman, were critically injured in the crash. Both were airlifted to University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor for treatment. Their current conditions are unknown.

The driver of the GMC Terrain was not injured.

Police say alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been factors. Michigan State Police gave no information on the horse. An investigation is ongoing. Let’s hope these women pull through and recover.

Another Crash In This Same Neighborhood

Last December, the same two roads were the scene of another crash, when a pickup struck an Amish family’s buggy on Mead Road north of West Territorial Road, also in Camden Township. Two individuals – a father and child – were also airlifted to hospitals in that incident.

Hillsdale County is home to four Amish communities, with a combined population of just over 1,400 according to the 2026 Young Center figures. The largest is the Camden settlement, founded in 1956, with an estimated 770 people in five church districts. That appears to be the community in question, with this wreck happening in Camden Township. It’s a Swiss Amish community, a group which traditionally uses open buggies.

Hillsdale is also one of three southern Michigan counties, along with Branch and St. Joseph, where a state-funded effort has attempted to reduce buggy crashes. The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency took on that effort with a grant from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, described as the first project of its kind in the state.

Between 2016 and 2023, the three counties accounted for 78 of the 261 known car-buggy crashes in Michigan. The health agency worked with Amish bishops in all three counties and surveyed Amish buggy drivers on their safety concerns. Its stated goal was a 15% reduction in crashes by the end of September 2025.

I’ve participated in one of their meetings in the past, and from what I know, the program is ongoing. Over a period in the last one to two years, the state had a spate of crashes, making the news often. Though, as noted after the December crash, that may partly reflect more thorough media coverage in Michigan than in other states, since not every buggy crash gets reported.