5-Year-Old Girl Ejected From Buggy In Crash

5-Year-Old Girl Ejected From Buggy In Crash

NBC 4

UPDATE: Troopers release additional information after a young Amish girl is critically injured in a crash with a tanker truck.

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MARTINSBURG, Ohio—A 5-year-old Amish girl remained in critical condition Tuesday evening after the buggy in which she was riding was involved in a crash with a tanker.

NBC 4’s Mike Bowersock reported with the FAST FACTS.

The crash happened on state Route 62 at Deal Road at about 9:10 a.m.

A horse-drawn buggy was traveling northbound on S.R. 62 with three Amish girls inside. The girls’ ages are 17, 14 and 5.

Joseph A Scarano, 46, of Woodland, TX, was driving a tanker with a load of plastic northbound on S.R. 62.

Scarano was passing the buggy when the buggy turned left in front of him, a report said.

The 5-year-old was ejected from the buggy and was trapped under the tanker.

“By the time I got here the girl was still underneath the truck,“ Bladensburg Fire Chief Nick Cockrell said.

EMS technicians worked to extricate the child for about 45 minutes.

She was transported to Nationwide Children’s Hospital by medical helicopter. The girl remained in critical condition at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The 17-year-old and 14-year-old both received minor injuries.

Scarano was not injured.

The Ohio Highway Patrol said the buggy did not have the reflective placard on the back, as required by law. There was no indication the placard would have made a difference in the crash.

Motor-vehicle-versus-horse-drawn-buggy crashes have been on the rise in recent years.

There have been 99 crashes so far this year. Before today’s incident, there had been 46 injuries in the same type of crash during 2009.

In north Central Ohio there is a constant potential for an unintended and unplanned meeting.

“It’s hilly and curvy around here. So you don’t see ’em. They’re coming around the curves at night time, and they’ll just be there,“ said Amish Country resident Evelyn Butler.

S.R. 62 was closed at Deal Road during the initial crash investigation.

The Mt. Gilead post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol continued to investigate.

OSP and NBC 4 initially reported there were three vehicles involved in the crash. Initial reports indicated the child was 8 years old. A report from OSP received later in the day confirmed she is 5 years old.

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Reader Reactions

Flag Comment Posted by Vth_Avenue on October 22, 2009 at 6:28 am

Interested - Those in logistics have places to get to pronto and this buggy that goes 10 mph was impeding his delivery status.

Flag Comment Posted by interested on October 22, 2009 at 12:00 am

animalrights88, On Tuesday morning, all of the news stations were reporting the young girl’s age as 8 years old. By Tuesday afternoon, it was found out that the little girl was actually 5 years old. Most websites updated their stories. Mount Vernon News had the most informative story at noon on Tuesday, but I do not believe they changed their website as updates came in. By your screen name, I would have expected you to mention the truck hitting the horse instead of being so sarcastic about a small town newspaper.

Flag Comment Posted by interested on October 21, 2009 at 11:33 pm

Vth_Avenue, You sound contradictory by saying the truck was passing in a no-passing zone. Illegal! A friend of mine received a ticket , a fine, and points on the license for the same thing.

Flag Comment Posted by Vth_Avenue on October 21, 2009 at 8:01 pm

interested - I wonder what credibility “amishfriend” might have if he/she wasn’t a witness. Quite frankly, yea, it might be a no passing zone but the buggy pulled in front of it as it was passing, so its not on the truck driver’s fault, because unless you want to risk a jackknife, you can’t stop that suddenly when you have over 20 tons of cargo on board.

Flag Comment Posted by animalrights88 on October 21, 2009 at 7:42 pm

that was also sarcasm about the few other reporters saying she was 8, because the things i found saying she was 8 were not NEWS websites. Besides Mt Vernon’s Paper, but i dont know if i would call that news reliable.

Flag Comment Posted by animalrights88 on October 21, 2009 at 7:40 pm

I see only a few other “news” reporters stating the girl as 8 years old. NBC,Coshocton Tribune,Mansfield news Journal,Newark Advocate,Bucyrus Telegraph, Big News Network,and 10TV news all say her age was 5. So, what “other” news websites besides mt vernon say 8?? I’m sorry for stating my opinion about the Mt Vernon Newspaper it just does not seem very reliable.

Flag Comment Posted by interested on October 21, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Brian, This unfortunate accident was the road’s fault. If not, then the truck driver was left of center in a no-passing zone. The buggy driver did use her hand signal to turn according to amishfriend’s post on October 21st at 12:16 AM.

Flag Comment Posted by Vth_Avenue on October 21, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Patriots - I respect those who have different lifestyles than I do, but, c’mon. They are inconveniences when they drive at 5 mph and you need to get somewhere ASAP. Kinda like this truck driver, logistics are very pivotal. Fact of matter is they don’t have vehicles that have motors or any non-manual requirement such as a tail light or a head light. The driver of the buggy should have used a hand signal plus they didn’t have the required placard.

Flag Comment Posted by BrianLC on October 21, 2009 at 5:04 pm

I’m not sure if the last comment was targeted towards me…but I want to clarify that I have no problem with amish buggies driving on roads, they’re no different than any other slow moving vehicle that travels the countryside.  My point was that I’m not sure how a buggie, or any vehicle that turns in front of another vehicle, is not the cause of the accident?

Flag Comment Posted by Patriots on October 21, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Oooh, ouch, feel better now? Your right, who do these Amish people think they are to think they have any rights on “our” roads? They should be run right off the road or plowed right over afterall it would be completely their fault and we shouldn’t be held responsible if we hit them. See how ridiculous that sounds? I know they are not perfect, but they aren’t the inconvience and drain on society that some comments on here are making them out to be.

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