Gladwin County Amish Buggy Crashes Into Car Driven By Mother

"It jumped up on top of the car and then they just kept going afterward."

A bizarre hit-and-run left a car damaged and a pregnant woman and her son terrified.

It was all caused by a horse and buggy.

A woman and her five-year old were driving home when an Amish buggy veered out of the oncoming lane, running right into and on top of her car.

But the buggy didn’t stop … the horse kept going.

The hit-and-run happened around 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1 on Bard Road south of M-61 near West Dale Road in Gladwin County.

9&10’s Cody Boyer talked to the woman behind the wheel about the terrifying experience.

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Victoria Ulrick says the Amish buggy seemed to come out of nowhere.

It smashed into her car, then disappeared… buggy, driver and all.

"I don’t even remember seeing the buggy," Ulrick says. "All that is pictured in my head is that big horse pretty much coming right at me."

It started as a late-night trip home through Amish country for Victoria Ulrick and her 5-year-old son.

Then they passed a buggy coming the other way.

"I was following my fiancé and he had slowed down, so I slowed down, too, naturally. That’s a very Amish community out there," Ulrick says. "As soon as he went by, [the horse] kind of bucked over the line so I started trying to get off the road as much as possible, slowed down."

….But the horse and buggy didn’t change direction.

“I was sitting in the road [sideways] when the horse actually hit me," Ulrick says. "My son, the first thing after it hit, was, ‘What did we hit? What did we hit?’ I told him right away, ‘We didn’t hit anything. They hit us!’"

The damage done to Victoria’s car, according to State Troopers, is significant. Both the front and rear fender on the left side are punctured. You can actually see some of the hair still embedded in the handle. The horse’s hooves came up to the hood, cracked the windshield, ground across the roof and actually slid right across her driver side window.

"The hoof, if it would have been an inch lower, I think it would have came through the window and probably squashed my head and left my son alone in the back," Ulrick says. “I had some stuff in the backseat. It flew over onto him from the impact and it was very loud and very scary.”

As quickly as it happened, the buggy and whoever was driving it was gone.

"I started bawling instantly," Ulrick says. "It was terrifying."

Victoria, also 22-weeks pregnant, immediately called police.

“I didn’t have my cell phone on me," Ulrick says. "My fiancé had it, so I hopped in, went down to flag him down and reported it to police.”

But there was no trace of the person who hit her car.

"Obviously, it wasn’t exactly his fault," Ulrick says. "It was the animal that got spooked so I wouldn’t have blamed him, you know? My son just keeps asking me, ‘What if he would have died, Mommy?’ What if he would have died?’ Terrifying to think it very well could have happened in the situation.”

As police investigate the hit and run, Victoria says she’s lucky it didn’t end worse.

"God was definitely with us and protected us from what could have happened," Ulrick says.

State Police are looking for whoever was holding the reins that night.

Victoria hopes they come forward soon.

"I’d like if they took responsibility if found and at least helped cover the damages and any information should be reported to police," Ulrick says.