Two young Amish children are fighting for their lives at Children's Hospital in the Twin Cities after the buggy they were riding in was hit by a car.
It happened last Thursday near Hinkley, Minnesota. Pine County Sheriff Jeff Nelson says a 17-year old driver called 911 to report he had hit the horse-drawn buggy.
An Amish couple and their four small children were all injured, with a 2-year old and 4-year old sustaining what are described as "life threatening injuries".
Sheriff Nelson says they're seeing an increase in traffic of all kinds on area roads, and people need to pay attention.
"A lot of stuff can be avoided by driving slow and being cautious on how you approach intersections," says the sheriff.
Nelson says they've seen a growing number of Amish families moving into the area in recent years adding to traffic levels.
"You know, in this case obviously we're talking about a horse-drawn carriage but we also have a lot of ATV, UTV traffic up here as well, where the same amount of lighting or size is going to be a different thing than what you might expect when you're used to seeing a car or a truck," Nelson explained to WCCO's Susie Jones.
Last September, two Amish children were killed in Fillmore County in southeast Minnesota. They were riding to school with two other siblings when a woman hit the buggy. That woman is facing charges.
Nelson would not say yet whether charges will be filed against the teenager in this latest accident.