Six people are injured, a horse is dead and a motorist is in custody after a sport utility vehicle struck an Amish buggy last weekend in Buckingham County.
Stuart James Russell Swink, a 23-year-old Dillwyn resident, has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, DUI maiming, driving without a valid operator’s license and failure to drive on the right side of the highway.
The Amish family inside the buggy suffered serious injuries, according to authorities, but have been transported to nearby hospitals for care. Their horse died at the scene.
Virginia State Police troopers were dispatched around 5:55 p.m. Sunday to a reported hit-and-run on Virginia Route 20 about two-tenths of a mile north of James Madison Highway, placing the scene of the collision near the town of Dillwyn.
Troopers on the scene determined that Swink, behind the wheel of a 2005 GMC Yukon struck the rear of the Amish family’s buggy and then fled the scene, Sgt. Jessica Shehan told the Daily Progress in an email.
Swink did not make it far, stopping “a short distance away,” according to Shehan.
He was found, taken into custody and booked at the Piedmont Regional Jail outside Farmville, where he remained as of Wednesday.
It is not be the first time Swink has violated the rules of the road.
In Louisa County in 2020, he was twice found guilty of driving without a license. The following year, he was found guilty of operating an uninsured vehicle, driving without a license and the illegal use of farm tags.
Last year, in separate incidents, he was convicted in Buckingham County of driving without a license and, after first getting charged with a felony, found guilty of misdemeanor unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Louisa County. For the latter crime, he received a 90-day suspended sentence.
And last month, just five weeks before the buggy wreck, Swink was charged with driving on a revoked license. That case is pending in Harrisonburg-Rockingham County General District Court.
It is also not the first time a motor vehicle has done serious damage and injury to an Amish-driven buggy in Buckingham County.
On Dec. 20, 2019, the driver of a Chevrolet Silverado struck a family of six in two-horse buggy on U.S. 60 near High School Road. Sylvia Yoder, a 31-year-old Dillwyn homemaker, died of her injuries the following day. Her husband was hurt, her four children were seriously injured and one horse was euthanized at the scene.
Buckingham County Circuit Court records show the Silverado’s driver, Buckingham resident George Michael Lee, 67 at the time, pleaded guilty the following year to involuntary manslaughter and received a fully suspended sentence. He was subsequently sued in that same court by the four injured children and by the estate of their mother, each of whom received settlements in 2021.
Sunday’s crash remains under investigation.
Daily Progress reporter Hawes Spencer contributed to this story.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com