Fillmore County warrant: suspect in recent buggy crash pulled over while fleeing scene, claimed she hit a deer

By KAALTV

(Credit: MGN)

(ABC 6 News) – Fillmore County search warrants filed this week allege that the suspect in a crash involving a car and a buggy was pulled over with visible front-end damage as she fled the scene, and went home after she told a deputy she’d hit a deer earlier.

At about 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, Fillmore County responded to several reports that a car had struck an Amish buggy with nine occupants.

According to a warrant publicly filed Tuesday, Feb. 20, a Fillmore County deputy actually pulled the suspect vehicle over on his way from Spring Valley to the crash site.

According to the search warrant, the deputy saw a white car southbound on North Section Avenue near Capelle Court, which had “substantial front end damage with a passenger side headlight out and no tail lights.”

The deputy pulled the vehicle, a white Pontiac Grand Prix, over and identified a 32-year-old Spring Valley woman as the driver.

The suspect in the 2024 buggy crash had not been named by law enforcement, or charged, as of Wednesday, Feb. 21.

ABC 6 News has not named the suspect in the search warrants based on the current lack of charges.

The woman allegedly told the deputy she’d hit a deer on her way back to Spring Valley.

The deputy made contact with another first responder, who believed the vehicle that hit the buggy was present at the scene — so the deputy “cleared” from the traffic stop and continued to the crash site.

As the deputy approached the site, law enforcement learned the “striking vehicle,” a white car with pieces still present at the scene, had actually fled.

Deputies later found the suspect at a home on N Pleasant Avenue in Spring Valley, according to the search warrant, where she first reiterated that she had hit a deer, then said she had indeed hit a buggy on CR 1.

According to the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office, six of the nine people in the buggy were transported for medical treatment Friday night. Four of them had been released from the pediatric ICU Saturday morning, per the search warrant, while two remained in the hospital.

“Medical information available indicates that one patient has suffered a brain bleed as a result of the crash,” the search warrant reads.

The search warrant indicates that law enforcement seized the vehicle, and is checking recording devices for crash data including the suspect’s speed, brake usage, and changes in “vehicle velocity” to help “in determining contributing factors and potential fault.”

Crashes on County Road 1

The Feb. 16 crash is the second to take place along a stretch of County Road 1 .

In September 2023, two Amish children were killed in a crash.

Samantha Jo Petersen was charged with criminal vehicular homicide, among other charges, after Fillmore County law enforcement allegedly determined that she had switched places with her twin sister Sarah Beth Petersen to evade criminal charges.