A nine-week-old girl is in Akron Children's Hospital with serious injuries after the horse-drawn buggy carrying her family was struck from behind by a car on State Route 302 in Ashland County, Ohio, on Friday morning, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The crash happened at about 8:01 a.m. on November 6 near the Ashland–Wayne county line. Both vehicles were travelling east when a 2012 Honda Civic driven by Dalton Byers, 33, of Sullivan, hit the buggy from behind. The impact tore the buggy apart, scattering pieces along about 100 feet of roadway and shoulder. The baby was the most seriously hurt of the four people in the buggy; no update on her condition has been released.

Source: Ohio State Highway Patrol account reported by Ashland County Pictures; Amish America, Nov. 7, 2026

The buggy was driven by Jacob Gingerich, 38, of West Salem. His passengers were his wife, 39, an 11-year-old boy and the infant girl. New Pittsburg EMS transported the mother and the infant to Wooster Community Hospital, and the infant was later transferred to Akron Children's Hospital, the region's specialist children's hospital. The Patrol described the injuries of the other buggy occupants as non-life-threatening. The horse that had been pulling the buggy sustained minor injuries. In keeping with the practice for injured children, the children are identified here by age only.

Source: Ashland County Pictures, reporting the Ohio State Highway Patrol

What the Patrol Has — and Has Not — Said

According to the report carried by Ashland County Pictures, no citation had been issued as of Friday, investigators do not suspect that drugs or alcohol played a part in the crash, and the crash remains under investigation by the Highway Patrol. The Patrol's account establishes the basic mechanics — an eastbound car striking an eastbound buggy from behind on a two-lane state route in the morning — but it has not said why the car struck the buggy, how fast either vehicle was travelling, or whether charges or a citation may follow once the investigation is complete. The driver of the car, Byers, is not reported to have been injured, and no allegation against him has been made public; a rear-end collision account in a police report is a description of the impact, not a finding of fault.

Source: Ashland County Pictures; Amish America, Nov. 7, 2026

A County Where Buggies Share the Road

Ashland County is home to several Amish settlements, including the sizeable Ashland-area settlement and a portion of the Lodi/Homerville community, which is shared with neighbouring counties. The family's West Salem address suggests they may belong to the Lodi community, a Swartzentruber group, Amish America noted — one of the more conservative Amish affiliations, whose buggies are among the slowest and plainest vehicles on Ohio's rural roads. On two-lane state routes like Route 302, motor traffic travelling at highway speed shares the pavement with buggies moving at a horse's pace, and the closing speed between the two is the central safety problem in every crash of this kind: a driver who comes over a rise or around a bend can be on top of a buggy in seconds.

Source: Amish America, Nov. 7, 2026 (settlement background)

Friday's crash is not an isolated event in the county. In February of this year, a car hit a buggy on U.S. 42 in Ashland County and a four-month-old baby and the child's parents were ejected. In July 2025, a small child was flown to Akron Children's Hospital after a pickup struck a buggy on Ohio Route 96. And in September 2025, Ashland County Pictures documented another buggy wrecked by a car on U.S. Route 224 east of Sullivan — the same township area as Friday's crash — in which the buggy driver and a teenage passenger were taken to hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening. Each crash is investigated on its own facts, and the Patrol has drawn no connection between them, but for the county's Amish families the pattern is a recurring feature of life on roads built for much faster traffic.

Source: Amish America, Nov. 7, 2026, reviewing the earlier Ashland County buggy crashes

What Happens Next

The Highway Patrol's investigation continues, and its completion will decide whether a citation or any charge follows for the car's driver; as of the last report, none had been issued. For the family, the immediate question is the condition of a nine-week-old girl in Akron Children's Hospital, on which no update had been released by Saturday. For drivers across Ohio's Amish country, the crash is the latest reminder of the rule the Patrol repeats after every buggy collision: on rural two-lane roads, especially at dawn and over rises and bends, expect slow-moving vehicles — a buggy ahead may be travelling at walking pace while the traffic behind it is doing fifty.