The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

September 1, 2009

Car-buggy crash driver sentenced to prison

By Matt Snyder

PERRY TOWNSHIP — A Geneva, Ohio, woman was sentenced Tuesday for driving drunk and hitting an Amish buggy, ejecting an Amish man and his four children, ages 1 through 6, sending them all to the hospital.

Jennifer Crenshaw, 38, said nothing at her hearing. She was visibly broken up, and sobbed at least once before Common Pleas Judge Thomas R. Dobson.

“Ms. Crenshaw, everyone knows you’re sorry, but it was horrific,” Dobson said.

Ms. Crenshaw struck a utility pole along state Route 358 in Perry Township with her car on May 10, 2008, shearing it off and rolling her vehicle. It struck the Amish buggy, ejecting the whole family. The horse had to be put down.

The Amishman, Benjamin Kempf, 29, of 299 Carey Road, Perry Township, lost sight in one eye, and Assistant District Attorney William J. Moder said it’s not known whether the lost vision was permanent. One of his girls had her arm and leg broken.

“Hopefully, the eye will heal back. Hopefully, the youngster won’t have permanent nightmares, but she probably will,” Dobson said.

Ms. Crenshaw’s drinking binge occured over a relationship, and Dobson said he sees it all the time: people use alcohol as an escape.

Dobson sentenced her to 4 months to 1è years in jail and gave her one day of credit for time served.

A friend and coworker of Ms. Crenshaw’s, Norman Lee Hamilton, Ashtabula, testified on her behalf. He said Ms. Crenshaw was a very intelligent, articulate woman who started out at the bottom of a packing company and rose to supervise about 40 employees. She has since lost that job because of the crash.

“I happened to see her the very first day, Monday, after the accident,” said Hamilton. He said she was bruised and battered, and also very emotional. He said she had wanted to plead guilty and kept tabs on the progress of the victims.

Ms. Crenshaw was first charged with drunken driving, aggravated assault by vehicle, accidents involving death or injury, drunken driving with the highest rate of blood-alcohol content, failure to stop and render aid, reckless driving, careless driving, speeding, disregarding traffic lanes and failing to keep right.

She pleaded guilty June 10 to drunken driving and accidents involving serious bodily injury, a felony.

Hamilton also said Ms. Crenshaw has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous, found another job, and that there was no evidence she drank since the crash.

None of the Kempf family attended the sentencing.

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