Buggy Wreck Sends Two Amish Children To Hospital With Head Injuries. Crash Under Investigation; “Charges Are Pending”
From CNY Central:
CLAYTON, N.Y. — The New York State Police are investigating an amish buggy crash in Jefferson County which sent two young children to the hospital.
On June 11, 2025, at 3:46 p.m. State Police responded to County Route 3 in the town of Clayton for a vehicle collision.
Investigation revealed that a 2023 Dodge Challenger was traveling westbound on County Route 3 when it struck a horse drawn buggy that was also traveling westbound on County Route 3.
The operator and two passengers of the horse drawn buggy were ejected after being struck.
They were both heading in the same direction, so that suggests that the buggy was either rear-ended or perhaps clipped when passing.
There is no information on speed or other details about the car driver. I’ll just note that the Dodge Challenger is not known to be a slow vehicle.
Jefferson County, NY is home to one Amish community of several hundred people.
The victims
As for the Amish people involved – there were three in the buggy. It was two quite young children – four years old and five years old – and another person described as the “operator”.
People will assume that “operator” means that was an adult, though it is possible it was a child or teen. (Update: this report from Syracuse.com is saying that the third person was in fact an adult, though I’m not sure why the other two reports would use more neutral language).
The children are described as having “serious” head injuries, but thankfully, not life-threatening. They were taken by ambulance to the hospital.
As for the horse, another report by WWNY TV notes that “Police said the horse ‘was seriously injured and treated and removed by a veterinarian on scene.'”
That report also states that “charges are pending”.
N.Y. Amish Children Hurt In Crash
Let us hope if charges are brought against the driver of the motor vehicle, the judge in this case will be much, MUCH tougher than that of the judge in the Petersen case (in MN) [in which two innocent Amish girls were killed] in which the driver of the motor vehicle got a slap on the wrist!! I’m STILL reeling after reading about that case!!