Probation in the works for driver who hit Amish buggy in Minnesota and drove off, leaving 9 injured

A sentence of probation is in the works for a 33-year-old woman who hit an Amish buggy in southern Minnesota and drove off while seven children and their parents in the horse-drawn carriage sustained injuries.

Brittany N. Edgar of Spring Valley, Minn., agreed Tuesday in Fillmore County District Court to plead guilty to one felony count in connection with the Feb. 16 collision on County Road 1 near Spring Valley.

The agreement between the County Attorney’s Office and the defense calls for Edgar to admit to one count of criminal vehicular operation and have dismissed another criminal vehicle operation count as well as charges of leaving the scene of a crash, careless driving, fleeing law enforcement and failure to carry proof of insurance.

The length of Edgar’s probation and other terms will be determined at sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 30 before Judge Jeremy Clinefelter.

Court filings in Minnesota show Edgar’s record includes two convictions for drug offenses, one each for drunken driving, a lane violation, disobeying a traffic control device and speeding along with two for careless driving.

The father in the buggy told the Sheriff’s Office the family’s 12-year-old suffered a concussion, their 3-year-old had a broken arm and their 1-year-old sustained a skull fracture as well as a swollen left eye. He said he, his wife and their four other children had minor injuries.

The crash was the second serious collision involving an Amish buggy in Minnesota in February and the third in the state since September 2023.

According to the criminal complaint against Edgar:

A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched shortly after 10 p.m. to the crash scene and saw an SUV parked on one shoulder and the buggy in a ditch.

About 10 minutes later, a fellow deputy saw a car with heavy front-end damage, no rear lights and one headlight out heading south on County Road 1. The deputy pulled over the car with Edgar behind the wheel. She told the deputy she hit a deer a couple of hours earlier. The deputy, having learned of the SUV at the crash scene, let Edgar go with a warning.

But back at the scene, one witness told law enforcement a car collided with the buggy and then drove off.

Shortly after 10:50 p.m., a sheriff’s sergeant found the car at Edgar’s home. She repeated that she hit a deer, but she eventually conceded to striking the buggy, the complaint said.

On Feb. 1, an Amish couple and their four small children in a horse-drawn buggy were injured in a collision with a teenage driver southeast of Hinckley, the Pine County Sheriff’s Office said. Charges have yet to be filed in that case.

On Sept. 25, 2023, also on County Road 1 near Spring Valley, 35-year-old twins allegedly swapped identities in a plot to conceal from law enforcement who was driving an SUV that hit an Amish buggy. Two of the four children inside were killed, and the women were charged with numerous criminal vehicular homicide and operation counts.