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Community offers to help Penn Yan Mennonite family recovering from serious crash

A local Mennonite family continues to recover both physically and emotionally from a serious crash they were involved in two weeks ago.

Matthew and Katrina Sensenig and their five children, aged 9 years to 7 months, were all ejected from their horse-drawn buggy when it was rear-ended by a vehicle on County Road 22 in Penn Yann on Aug. 9.

All were hospitalized with serious injuries.

"I know that they're very grateful that none of the children died and that no one was paralyzed, but it's extremely difficult, because the girl is still in ICU, the 7-year-old," said Robert Ament of Irondequoit, who identified himself as a friend of the family. "Her legs were badly, badly injured, but they're very grateful to the doctors. They were able to save both her legs."

According to Ament, Matthew and Katrina Sensenig are recovering at home from fractured vertebrae and won't be able to work on their farm for months.  Seven-year-old Lynelle is still hospitalized with severe leg injuries.

Ament said the Sensenigs are grateful to people who, in a "barrage of emails," offered to tend to their farm, take care of the children, cook their meals, and clean their home.

"They also wanted me to thank the first responders and the Mercy Flight pilots for saving the lives of them and their children and also the doctors for saving the legs of their daughter," he added.

Ament has started a GoFundMe page to help with the family's living and medical expenses. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had raised over $30,000.

The driver who crashed into the buggy, 24-year-old Justin Niver of Penn Yan, was not injured. Niver was charged with several counts, including following too closely.

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.