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Published on July 22, 2024
DUI Suspect Charged After Crashing Into Horse-and-Buggy in Lancaster County, Eight Injured Including InfantSource: Google Street View

A sobering collision yesterday afternoon in Lancaster County has underscored the grim consequences of driving under the influence, as a man driving a Toyota Prius struck a horse-and-buggy carrying eight individuals, including a 5-month-old child. As reported by PennLive, the driver, identified as 27-year-old James L. Walkergoutal of West Chester, rammed into the rear of the buggy on Lincoln Highway East near the intersection with Slaymaker Hill Road in Paradise Township.

The crash occurred around 4:16 p.m., and following the impact, police, and emergency medical personnel responded to the scene where eight individuals, their lives interconnected by tradition and now by shared trauma were transported to Lancaster General Hospital and they were reported to be in stable condition yesterday night, mingling relief with echoes of what could have been; FOX 29 News stated that they were treated for a range of injuries sustained in the crash.

Walkergoutal, who authorities determined to have been impaired by both alcohol and drugs at the time of the collision, has been taken into custody and is facing multiple charges, his freedom curtailed by a lattice of law designed to deter such reckless endangerment of human life — an aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance, and reckless driving among them, as WGAL reports detail these allegations.