7 Amish die in 2 crashes involving their rented van, buggy

UPI

a day ago

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The Amish community in Michigan is in mourning after seven died on the same day in two separate crashes 86 miles apart in the central part of the state.
In Tuscola County, six Amish died when a driver ran a stop sign and the truck t-boned the van with 10 occupants in a crash reported at 4:45 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
About 30 minutes later in Montcalm County, which is directly east of Tuscola County, a 4-month-old girl died after a driver crashed into a buggy while trying to pass.
The Tuscola County Sheriff's Office said the van was traveling west on M-138 when it was struck by the truck traveling south. Several passengers were ejected with three others in the van hospitalized.
The truck had three occupants, with one person dying, WJRT-TV in Flint reported.
"They had a paid driver in the van," Undersheriff Robert Baxter told The Detroit News on Wednesday. "I'm not sure where they were headed or where they were coming from. They're county residents."
Amish generally don't drive, and instead travel in horse and buggy. Families often hire van drivers for longer distances.
"It's not uncommon for Amish families to hire a non-Amish driver (who owns a van) to transport them places that are further than buggy-driving distance," Steven M. Nolt, professor of History and Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa., told the newspaper. "This might be a trip to a doctor's office 30 miles away from their home or it might be an interstate trip of hundreds of miles."
In the second crash, reported at 5:19 p.m., a pickup traveling east attempted to pass a buggy occupied by seven Amish family members. The truck driver, noticing an oncoming vehicle, attempted to swerve back into the right lane and struck the buggy, Michigan State Police reported.
Five children, all under 5, and a 24-year-old woman were taken to a hospital. The 4-month-old child died. On Wednesday, two children were released, the mother and a 1-year-old girl were in stable condition, and a 2-year-old boy was listed in critical condition.
A man in the buggy and the pickup driver had minor injuries. The horse pulling the buggy was euthanized.
"The Amish ... community will band together," Kevin Williams, who writes a syndicated Amish newspaper column, told The Detroit News. "There will be very large funerals that will draw thousands, many coming from states away to pay their respects.
"The Amish will lean heavily on their faith and view the accident as God's will. Their grief is tempered by their faith."
Several Amish have been involved in other crashes in the state.
Last week, six Amish were hurt when an SUV crashed into a horse-drawn buggy in southwest Michigan.
On the Fourth of July, a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy in a buggy were injured when a man crashed into them in the central lower peninsula. The man was arrested on a drunken-driving charge.
In March, a crash between a vehicle and a horse-drawn buggy killed an 8-year-old girl and seriously injured a 12-year-old boy in southwest Michigan.
The Amish community in Michigan, which is estimated at 18,000, is spread in 52 settlements from Hillsdale and Branch County in the south to several in the Upper Peninsula, according to Amish America.
The first Amish settled in the state in 1895.
In North America, there are an estimated 411,060 Amish with a presence in 32 states, including 61% in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and three Canadian provinces, according to the Amish Studies' Young Center at Elizabeth College.