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Three children were seriously injured, while the eight other buggy riders suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Lafayette County Sheriff Scott Pedley said Monday. He didn't have details on the children's injuries.
The crash happened about 6 p.m. Sunday when motorcyclist Joseph Hendrickson, 21, of Blue Mounds, missed a curve on Highway F near the entrance to Yellowstone Lake State Park.
The bike crossed the center line and hit the buggy traveling in the opposite direction. The collision killed Hendrickson, who was not wearing a helmet.
Two families, both of rural Darlington about 70 miles southwest of Madison, were in the buggy.
Jonas Miller, 45, his wife, Emma Miller, 44, and their daughter, Fanny Miller, 4, were taken to Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County with non-life-threatening injuries. A nurse said none of the three was there Monday afternoon.
The other family was a couple with six children under age 12.
Eli S. King, 46, was listed in good condition Monday afternoon at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. His wife, Nancy King, 44, was discharged earlier that morning.
Christopher King, 12, Eli King, 7, and Nancy King, 4 months, who shares her mother's name, were taken to an unspecified Madison hospital for treatment for ``severe'' injuries, Pedley said. A spokeswoman for the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics said Monday afternoon she didn't know whether the three children were there.
A spokeswoman for another area hospital also couldn't immediately say whether the children were there.
The Kings' three other children, whom the sheriff estimated were between the ages of 3 and 5, had minor injuries that didn't require hospital care. He didn't know their names.
One of the two horses pulling the buggy had to be destroyed.
Pedley said the Amish population in Lafayette County, which has about 16,000 residents on the Illinois border, has been growing for years and now numbers in the hundreds. Accidents between Amish buggies and motor vehicles were becoming more frequent, he said.
``The Amish community has done a fairly reasonable job working with us to enhance lighting equipment and reflective equipment on buggies,'' he said. ``But unfortunately, because it's an emerging population, I anticipate we'll be seeing more of this sort of tragedy.''
Pedley said the problem isn't just having more horse-drawn buggies on the roads. Lafayette County has hilly terrain that produces areas where motorists can only see ahead for limited distances.
``A crash like this could have involved any slow vehicle like a slow-moving tractor pulling a plow, or with bicyclists or hikers,'' he said. ``What we motorists need to remember is to slow down so we have ample opportunity to hit the brakes.''
