Indiana Amish discuss road safety after cart crash

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. — Amish leaders agree that more must be done to teach their community’s youth about road safety following a crash in northern Indiana that killed two girls riding in a horse-drawn cart, according to a state senator.

Questions have been raised about safety since a 10-year-old girl drove the cart into the path of an SUV on a rural road near the Elkhart County town of Middlebury.

Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury, told The Elkhart Truth that Amish leaders attending a private meeting Monday discussed introducing a “safety day” for Amish youngsters, during which police officers could be invited talk about the rules of the road.

Yoder said they didn’t discuss whether a minimum age should be set for driving horse-drawn vehicles and bikes. State law doesn’t set any minimum age for operating horse-drawn vehicles along Indiana roadways.

“The kind of concern here is, you have a 9 or 10 year old in charge of a horse,” Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers, who took part in Monday’s meeting, told WSBT-TV. “Horses don’t always obey the direction they’re given.”

Yoder said some people have told him the state should set a minimum age, but he doesn’t yet favor such a move.

“I grew up on a dirt road in southern Elkhart County where I was on the roads from the age of six, biking up to my grandma’s house,” Yoder said. “So to think a kid on a country road can’t go an eighth of a mile over to his grandma’s house when he’s ten years old or whatever, I don’t know.”

Jenna Miller, 10, and Jolisa Miller, 7, were killed in the accident about 30 miles east of South Bend, according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department. Ten-year-old Jeneva Miller, who was driving the cart, and 9-year-old sister Joyce Miller were critically injured. A neighbor told the Truth that both are improving.

Neighbor Arlin Miller, who isn’t related to the family, said 4-year-old Jared Miller, who suffered a head injury, has been awake and responsive, while Jeneva is sedated but can follow simple instructions.

The children had traveled in the pony cart many times before without problems and at the time of the crash were headed to a nearby chicken house that had been damaged in a storm to feed chickens that had gotten loose, Miller said.