3rd child dies after pickup-Amish carriage crash in southern Michigan

Algansee Township, Mich. — A third child has died after an Amish horse-drawn carriage carrying seven people was rear-ended by a pickup truck in southern Michigan.

The child, 4, was taken to a hospital Friday with life-threatening injuries that were eventually fatal, said Michigan State Police on Sunday.

Two other children, ages 6 and 2, had been pronounced dead at the crash scene after the car wreck Friday night in Algansee Township, a small farming community not far from Michigan’s borders with Indiana and Ohio.

State police said the driver, Tyler Frye, 21 of Angola, Indiana, was arraigned by video on three counts of operating while under the influence causing death, two counts of operating under the influence causing injury and a felony weapons charge. Frye was held on a $500,000 bond in the Branch County Jail.

Police allege that Frye was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Trooper Alan Fouty said Sunday that at the time of the crash, Frey was coming back from a funeral viewing of a friend who had passed away.

Another child, 3, and a woman were seriously injured in the crash, said police.

Two adults and five children were ejected after the carriage was struck by the pickup, said police.

Authorities haven’t released the names of anyone involved.

The crash was similar to a mid-Michigan crash in 2015 involving an Amish buggy that killed a woman and injured three children.

The Bay City Times reported 58-year-old Kevin D. Toner of Coleman was charged in the crash. Court records say he had been under the influence of THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. 

The Gladwin County Sheriff's Office said Sarah Stutzman, 31, of Clare County was pronounced dead at the scene on Dec. 14, 2015, crash in Beaverton Township. The children were taken to a hospital for treatment.

jchambers@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Francis X. Donnelly contributed.