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PRESTON, Minn. — Authorities in Fillmore County, Minnesota, are processing a pair of Amish buggy accidents that took place within 10 miles and 6 months of each other.

Samantha Petersen, who is accused of crashing into an Amish buggy and killing two children in September, made her first court appearance Monday morning, March 25 in Fillmore County.

Petersen, 35, of Spring Valley including eight felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide, eight counts of felony criminal vehicular operation, two gross misdemeanor counts of driving while impaired, and misdemeanor counts of failing to provide proof of insurance and careless driving.

According to the criminal complaint:

Petersen was driving south on Fillmore County Highway 1 in Sumner Township, September 25, 2023, when she struck a buggy carrying four children. Two children, 7-year-old Wilma Miller and 11-year-old Irma Miller died in the crash. Their siblings, 9-year-old Alan Miller and 13-year-old Rose Miller, survived the crash with serious injuries. A horse was also killed in the crash.

Petersen was released from custody on a conditional bond and appeared in court in person.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for June 3.

Petersen’s sister Sarah Beth Petersen, 35, of Spring Valley, for allegedly telling investigators that she had been driving at the time of the crash.

Sarah Beth Petersen is scheduled to appear in court Thursday, March 28.

A Spring Valley woman was charged Tuesday in a separate Amish buggy crash, which took place in February just eight and a half miles north of the first.

Brittany Nicole Edgar, 32, has been charged for a hit-and-run accident that injured six individuals, including at least three children.

According to the criminal complaint:

Fillmore County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a crash after a driver struck a buggy near Spring Valley on Fillmore County Highway 1 shortly after 10 p.m. Feb. 16. Six people were injured and sent to a hospital. Two children hurt in the crash were seriously injured, according to reports.

A deputy responding to the crash spotted Edgar driving a white 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix with front-end damage. The deputy stopped the woman, identified as Edgar, in Spring Valley. The woman said she had hit a deer while driving to her parents’ Spring Valley home. At the time, the deputy believed the driver of the car involved in the buggy crash was still at the site of the crash, so he let the woman go and continued heading to the crash.

Deputies found parts of a white bumper at the crash and connected it to the officer who pulled Edgar over on his way to the scene. Deputies later followed up with the woman who again said she hit a deer but later admitted she had hit the buggy.

According to the filing, two of the injured children were treated in the pediatric ICU at Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys in Rochester. One of them, 12, suffered a brain bleed, the report shows. A one-year-old hurt in the crash had a skull fracture and a swollen eye. The third injured, age 3, suffered a broken arm, the complaint shows.

Edgar faces a felony charge of criminal vehicular operation causing substantial bodily harm; gross misdemeanor criminal vehicular operation, leaving the scene of a collision; misdemeanor charges of leaving the scene of an accident; careless driving; failure to provide proof of insurance and a charge of providing false information to an officer.