Amish Wagon Wreck: Eight People Ejected; Horse Killed (New York)
This was first reported yesterday – but with scarce details. Now it’s known that a crash in Herkimer County, New York, ejected eight Amish people from a wagon, with a six-year-old boy being hospitalized.
A horse was also killed in the crash. From Syracuse.com:
Danube, N.Y. — Eight people were ejected from a horse-drawn wagon and a horse died after a crash Monday in Herkimer County.
Around 5:37 p.m., a 2012 Dodge driven by Laurie Callan, 73, of Fort Plain, hit the back of a horse-drawn wagon on Route 5 in the town of Danube, according to a news release from State Police.
The car overturned into the westbound lane.
The wagon, which was pulled by two horses, went off the road. All eight people were thrown from the wagon.
A 6-year-old boy, who was a passenger in the wagon, was taken to Wynn Hospital in Utica with non-life-threatening injuries, troopers said. None of the other people were injured.
One of the two horses pulling the wagon died at the scene of the crash, troopers said.
A couple things to note – unlike with most road crashes involving the Amish, this wasn’t a typical Amish buggy (despite it being described as a “buggy” in some sources), but rather a large open wagon, which was apparently transporting produce at the time.
In this image, you can see produce spilled out on the roadside:
Being a larger vehicle, two horses were used to pull it. One has survived.
Thankfully, no people were killed, and it sounds like the boy’s injuries are non-life-threatening, but that doesn’t mean they’re not serious.
Herkimer County is home to a small Amish community of an estimated 90 people as of 2025.
Driver Cited
Based on the citations, it sounds like the driver was not driving carefully. She was issued tickets for the following violations:
- Following Too Closely
- Failure to Exercise Due Care to Avoid a Collision with a Horse on the Highway
- Unreasonable Speed
A horse lost its life as a result. Fortunately for the Amish, and for her, it didn’t end up with a person dying (which could have been the truck driver in this case). She suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The truck was also heavily damaged, as you can see in the above images. That reflects the type of vehicle that was hit.
It wasn’t a pony cart with a few children on it, nor a standard buggy. This was a much heavier horse-drawn vehicle.
NY Amish Wagon Accident
If only people would just slow down!! C’mon . . . It isn’t rocket science after all. Wonder if the truck’s driver suffered a medical emergency?? Let’s hope not & let’s pray all involved are feeling much better soon!
I wish people would take that to heart, K.D. So the driver ended up taking herself to hospital for treatment presumably for injuries sustained in the accident (I assume non-serious ones), so I think it can be ruled out that she had some sort of medical emergency which might have led to the accident. She is quite lucky though looking at the damage to the pickup.
Slow Down
Please Please Slow Down when you see the Amish on the road. I hope the driver of truck will be asked to replace the horse. That is a huge loss for the family.
That would be a nice gesture.