Two people were hospitalized Wednesday morning after being thrown from a horse-drawn buggy in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, in a crash that did not involve any other vehicles. The incident happened in the 600 block of Churchtown Road, with emergency crews responding shortly after 7 a.m.
According to local21news.com, the two riders were tossed from what dispatchers described as an “out-of-control” buggy and were taken to an area hospital with injuries sustained in the fall. The severity of their injuries was not clear, the station reported. PennLive placed the crash at about 7:15 a.m. in the same stretch of Churchtown Road, while local21news.com cited a time of around 7:14 a.m. — a small discrepancy between the two accounts of an otherwise consistent timeline.
LancasterOnline reported that the call for help came in near Churchtown and Cambridge roads, and a Lancaster County-wide communications dispatch supervisor confirmed that no other vehicles were involved in the crash. PennLive reported the same detail, noting that dispatchers could not immediately say what caused the crash, whether the buggy overturned, or whether the horse was hurt. LancasterOnline said the scene had been cleared before 9 a.m.
Multiple Crews Responded, State Police Investigating
Online dispatch records showed that multiple EMS units were sent to the scene, per the same local21news.com report. Pennsylvania State Police were investigating the crash, the station added, though LancasterOnline said it had left a message seeking more information from state police and had not yet received a response at the time of its report.
A Pattern of Buggy Crashes Around Salisbury Township
A Pattern of Buggy Crashes Around Salisbury Township Wednesday's crash is not an isolated event for the area. A much earlier vehicle crash involving a pony-drawn cart injured two people, including a 7-year-old child, also in Salisbury Township, according to LancasterOnline. That same report cited Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data showing 402 injury crashes and 10 deaths involving horse-and-buggies across Lancaster County between 2005 and 2024.
Other recent crashes point to the same risk playing out on roads throughout the county and beyond. A separate Salisbury Township crash reportedly injured three people and involved another vehicle, with officials saying the buggy overturned, according to local21news.com. A prior crash in the township left four buggy occupants with non-life-threatening injuries, per an earlier LancasterOnline report. Elsewhere in the county, WGAL reported that a vehicle and buggy collided near White Oak and Pond roads in Strasburg Township on Oct. 12, sending one person to the hospital, and that a minivan struck a buggy in Providence Township on July 3, seriously injuring two of the three people riding inside.
Slow-Moving Buggies Share Roads With Fast Traffic
Buggies typically travel between 5 and 8 miles per hour, WGAL noted, a speed differential that can turn a routine passing maneuver into a serious collision when drivers misjudge distance or react late. A July 3 crash reported by abc27.com involved two adults and one juvenile riding in a buggy that was occupied alongside a vehicle carrying a single adult; the two adults in the buggy were taken to a hospital. WGAL also reported that a vehicle and buggy collided on Path Valley Road in Metal Township on May 12, hospitalizing two people, and that the three crashes detailed in its report left five people injured in total, including two seriously.
No further details on the condition of Wednesday's two injured riders, the cause of the crash, or whether the buggy overturned have been released. Pennsylvania State Police had not issued a public statement on the investigation as of the latest reporting.
