Runaway horse and buggy with child inside corralled by passing motorist in Burton Ohio.
Two Amish women found a real-life guardian angel with a car Wednesday evening after their horse trotted off with a buggy in tow and a baby inside.
The horse took off from the driveway of a house on Georgia Road in rural Geauga County, Ohio. Michelle Rowell, who lives nearby, noticed the buggy and thought it was odd that she couldn't see anyone driving it.
Before she could give any more thought, she saw an Amish woman in the roadway screaming for help.
"She was flagging me down and screaming for help," Rowell, 37, said in a phone interview Thursday. "She said there was a baby inside.
Rowell said the woman got in the car and was soon joined by the 1-year-old boy's mother, who was also frantic.
"When they got in the car, I said lets say a prayer that guardian angels are around the baby," Rowell said.
As they trailed the buggy, the horse paused at a stop sign at Ohio 168 and waited for cars to pass. After looking both ways, it took a right on Ohio 168.
Rowell called 9-1-1 at 5:54 p.m. She handed the phone to the woman who had flagged her down. But the woman put down the phone, so the dispatcher couldn't get any information from them. But the call recorded the panicked conversation between Rowell and the women before it disconnected.
The women wanted Rowell to pull up beside the buggy so they could jump out of the car and grab the reins of the horse.
But Rowell told them not to and she drove slowly pass the buggy and pulled in front of the horse. She slowed down and came to a stop.
The horse stopped too and started to go around the car, but the Amish women got out of the car and yelled, "Whoa, whoa." The horse stopped and they grabbed the baby.
The women were grateful and neither the child nor the horse were injured. Rowell left without exchanging information with the women, so she doesn't know their names. She suspects the women were visiting one of her neighbors.
As Rowell drove home, she saw an Amish woman she thinks was the baby's grandmother running down the road trying to catch up with the buggy. Rowell told the woman everything was OK.
"I'm studying to be a nurse," Rowell said. "I guess this was good practice in dealing with a crisis.
Geauga County Sheriff's Lt. John Hiscox said it was the first runaway buggy he'd heard of in his 16-year career.
"Those horses are so well-trained," he added. "He probably would have headed straight home."
Glad its not tragic happen!
