An Amish child in Pennsylvania has died after being dragged by a horse for around a quarter of a mile. The 9-year-old girl died at a Salisbury Township farm while training the animal and using a lead wrapped around her wrist. The horse bolted and dragged the girl along behind it. She was pronounced dead at the Lancaster General Hospital the same day. Officials ruled her death an accident and stated she had suffered multiple injuries. She has not been named publicly, but media reports indicate that she was the second Amish child to die on a Pennsylvania farm in June.
A 3-year-old boy was killed in Colerain Township on June 3 in an accident involving farm equipment. The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office also ruled his death an accident and said the child died from multiple traumatic wounds. His name was likewise not released.
According to Pennsylvania statistics, children under five accounted for more than half of the 23 Amish accidental farm deaths between 2016 and 2024. In 2022, four people, including a teenager and two young children, died on Amish farms in Pennsylvania, and the following year, two children and a teenager were also killed.
The Amish community, which traces its heritage back to the Anabaptist movement that emerged in 16th-century Europe, owns around half of the 5,000 farms in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County. A federal study has found that 49% of the county’s farms do not have internet access, as the Amish community rejects modern technology and relies on manual labor. For instance, they do not use machinery such as tractors or combines and utilize horses to plow their land.
The Amish believe that working on land without technology brings them closer to God and allows them to bond with each other during long workdays. However, growing numbers are leaving traditional agriculture behind, moving into different lines of work, and increasingly mixing with non-Amish Americans, whom they call “the English.”