A youth group from a religious community that straddles the New York-Pennsylvania border got together after church services on Sunday afternoon and decided to go on a hayride.
In Ridgebury, Pa., 20 young people from a German Baptist congregation, ranging in age from 4 to 19 years old, hopped into a wagon filled with hay bales hitched to a tractor, according to the sheriff in Chemung County, N.Y., and a 16-year-old boy took the driver’s seat of the vehicle, a green John Deere.
Outside the village of Wellsburg, N.Y., on Comfort Hill Road, the passengers noticed that the brakes were smoking, and the driver “seemed to be struggling with some mechanical issues,” the sheriff, Bill Schrom, said in a statement.
Five passengers, sensing danger, jumped from the wagon, Mr. Schrom said.
About a mile and a half later, at the bottom of a hill, Comfort Hill Road comes to a T with Berwick Turnpike. There is a stop sign at the intersection. The tractor did not stop.
Video released by the sheriff’s office shows the John Deere attempting to turn right onto Berwick Turnpike, but it was going at what Sheriff Schrom called “a high rate of speed,” perhaps above the posted 30-mile-per-hour limit on Comfort Hill Road.
The hitch connecting the wagon to the trailer snapped, and the passengers went flying off the wagon. “The kids are screaming and crying,” Sheriff Schrom said.
The tractor slid into the intersection and rolled over several times, briefly pinning the driver underneath and dragging him several yards before slamming into a tree.
The driver, whose name has not been publicly released, was airlifted to a hospital 15 miles away in Pennsylvania and remained in critical condition on Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said. Amazingly, all of the other passengers escaped life-threatening injury and were treated and released, though some were badly banged up, Sheriff Schrom said.
“There was a volunteer fire department nearby so everyone reacted quickly, but it didn’t look good for a few of the people who left here,” the sheriff said. Aside from the driver, 10 other young people were injured, he said.
In photos from the scene, the mangled wreckage of the tractor sits against the tree with its wheels in the air. Clothing and bales of hay are strewed on the ground nearby.
Jeremy Brent, 39, a resident of Wellsburg, which is about 220 miles northwest of New York City, said he knew the situation was bad when he saw a medical helicopter land. “Most of them were kids and their belongings were all over the driveway,” he said in an email. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”
Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Ashley Southall contributed reporting.