CHESTER TWP. - Three siblings were killed and a fourth was critically injured when a vehicle struck a horse-drawn cart Wednesday afternoon northwest of Charlotte. The children were ages 6 to 13.

It was the second crash involving a motor vehicle and a horse-drawn vehicle this year to claim multiple lives. Three young siblings died in a June crash in Branch County.

In Wednesday's crash, the four Amish siblings were in the cart traveling home from school about 3:20 p.m. when a vehicle struck them from behind on Vermontville Highway near Bradley Road in Chester Township, Eaton County Sheriff Tom Reich said.

Emergency personnel arrived to find three of the children dead and a fourth seriously injured, officials said. The injured child was in stable condition on Thursday, they said.

An elderly man who was driving the motor vehicle was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the sheriff said.

"It's a horrible, horrible tragedy," Reich said. "My heart goes out to the family."

The children were riding in a two-wheeled cart and had just left school, a member of the Amish community said.

The horse pulling the cart was severely injured in the crash and was euthanized by a local veterinarian, Eaton County Undersheriff Jeff Cook said.

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Sheriff's detectives and the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Team are investigating the crash. Victim advocates are assisting the family, "and we will continue to provide our support and resources. We grieve with them," officials said in a news release on Wednesday evening.

The highway was closed for nearly five hours after the crash.

The names of the children and the driver of the vehicle were not immediately released, and police have not released a cause for the crash.

Cook declined to speculate about how long the investigation might take.

Wednesday's incident was the second fatal vehicle-buggy crash in southern Michigan in a little over three months.

In the early June crash, three siblings died after a pickup truck struck an Amish buggy in Branch County's Algansee Township, south of Coldwater.

In that crash, seven members of a family from Reading – parents and five children — were riding in the horse-drawn buggy when it was struck. The Angola man who was driving the truck has been charged with driving while intoxicated causing death and possessing a firearm while intoxicated.

The driver, Tyler Frye, 21, was scheduled to be in Branch County District Court this week for a preliminary examination after the proceeding was adjourned last month, according to WTVB, a Branch County radio station.

There also have been crashes this summer in which Amish buggy passengers have been injured. The Detroit Free Press reported in July that six children had been injured in a vehicle-buggy crash in Mecosta County and in August that four members of a family were injured after a buggy-vehicle crash near Hillsdale.

Cook said he could not recall any recent crashes involving horse-drawn vehicles and motor vehicles in Eaton County.

RELATED:What we know: 3 children dead, 1 injured after crash between vehicle and Amish buggy

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.