Buggy Hit & Run Suspect IDENTIFIED – Two Weeks After Amish Woman & Children Badly Hurt In Wreck
Great work: It looks like the driver of a truck which (allegedly) hit an Amish buggy, seriously injuring a woman and two children – then fled – is coming closer to facing charges for the crime.
Martha Wagler, a 27-year-old Amish woman, was traveling in a buggy along with two children in the early evening of November 12, in Williams County, Ohio.
That’s when her buggy was hit from behind by a truck. And rather than doing the right thing at that point, the driver took off. From the Toledo Blade:
The truck, believed to be a white Chevrolet Silverado, failed to stop and left the scene, the patrol said.
Ms. Wagler and the two children were taken to Parkview Bryan Hospital with serious injuries, the patrol said. Ms. Wagler was transferred to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the children were transferred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
The truck was located about a week ago. Zooming in on the provided photo, you can better see the front-end damage. The front looks to be caved in, and there is a missing wheel well liner above the front tire:
It looks like this truck is parked out-of-the-way, behind some sort of fence. But however it happened, it was found. And now, the driver has been identified as well. From The Bryan Times:
The Bryan Times reported on Nov. 22 the vehicle involved in the Nov. 12 hit-and-run crash with an Amish buggy had been located, the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Wednesday identified the driver as Michael D. Quillen, 32, of Bryan, who was operating the white Chevrolet Silverado involved in the incident.
It’s a local person – as it almost always is. They think they can get away with it…but that’s not an intelligent decision in the long run.
According to this report, public help contributed to this outcome, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol thanking the public “for providing tips that located the vehicle and identified the driver.” So bravo to the public, and to law enforcement for their efforts.
Williams County is way up in the northwest corner of Ohio, and is home to two separate Amish communities. The one in question here appears to be the larger one near the town of Bryan, a community of about 250 Amish people.
We previously heard from this community in a story this summer about the local government attempting to get the Amish to contribute for road repairs.
Not arrested yet?
As noted, Quillen has been ID’ed as the suspect – but there is no information in the reports I’ve been able to find indicating that he has been arrested.
That may be because he has continued to flee, or is in hiding. But at this point, it’s best for him to stop digging that hole and turn himself in.
An irony here is that the guy allegedly drives a big, powerful-looking truck…but by fleeing, doesn’t present himself as a very strong person at all.
No additional information on the condition of Martha Wagler or the children is available from what I’ve been able to find. I hope they are as okay as they can be at this point.
Sadly, this is just one of a steady stream of hit-and-run incidents involving Amish buggies reported recently. Those include a fatal crash in Iowa, an October wreck in Kentucky leaving multiple Amish people seriously injured, and another last week courtesy of a Jeep driver in the middle of a small town in Maine.
Scared me
As an Amish taxi driver who drives a white Chevy Express van, the top photo of the truck is almost identical to my van, so my heart stopped for a second when I saw it, thinking it might be an Amish taxi driver who hit the Waglers.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a driver this time, but it’s a gut-punch reminder of how vulnerable the buggies are, especially at dusk. I’ve had too many close calls driving through Amish country at dusk.
Prayers for the Wagler family, and may the driver find the courage to do the right thing and turn himself in.
Reply
Prayers for the Wagler family. I know of them from a friend not personally….people really need to get a grip on their lives. We like to go so fast in everything we do and we don’t realize the repercussions that come with unwise choices and how they affect others around us.