Driver of Passing Car Charged in Deaths of 5 Amish Farmers

Spencer Tulis/Finger Lakes Times, via Associated Press

The crash scene on Tuesday where five Amish famers died, and 10 others were injured.

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

Published: July 20, 2011  

A 42-year-old man has been charged with five felony counts of criminally negligent homicide for his role in a crash along a rural stretch of road in the Finger Lakes region of New York that killed five Amish farmers, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

The New York Times

The man, Steven Eldridge, of Penn Yan, N.Y., a town not far from the scene of the Tuesday crash, was also charged with driving while intoxicated.
He was trying to pass a farm tractor on a curve and sideswiped a van carrying 13 Amish farmers, sending the van across the road where it collided with the tractor, Sheriff Ronald G. Spike of Yates County said. The crash, in a no-passing zone, also injured 10 other people, the police said.
The town where the crash occurred, Benton, is roughly 40 miles southeast of Rochester, and dominated by large soybean fields.
Those killed in the crash were identified on Wednesday by Sheriff Spike as Melvin Hershberger, 42; Sarah Miller, 47; Melvin Hostetler, 40; Anna Mary Byler, 60; and Elizabeth Mast, 46. All five lived in Steuben County, on the Pennsylvania border.
The group was visiting other farms on an excursion, organized by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, to learn agricultural techniques that are compatible with the Amish religion.
Though the Amish traditionally use a horse and buggy to get around instead of a car, they are allowed to ride in cars and vans if someone outside of the community is driving.
Amish colonies have popped up in New York recently, attracted by affordable, rural farmland that is still close to traditional population centers. A study by researchers at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania found that the Amish had established 10 settlements in New York since the beginning of last year. The total New York State population has grown by more than one-third in the past two years, to 13,000, the researchers found.
At least four people were trapped in the wreckage before they were freed by emergency workers using power-cutting tools. Four hours after the crash, rescue workers were still removing pieces of the van.
The tractor was carrying large equipment, the authorities said. A dispatcher said four helicopters, several fire departments and about a dozen ambulance services were called to the scene.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.