The Yates County area community-at-large joins the Amish community in mourning the death of five persons killed by an alleged drunk driver on July 19, 2011. Four of the dead were in their 40's and one was 60 years of age.
Several of the dead were the heads of households.
The driver, Steven Eldridge, age 42, passed a tractor and other farm equipment in a no passing zone, then struck a van carrying the decedents. He has been charged with five counts of criminally negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated.
Hundreds of Amish from communities in distant states came to Benton for the funerals.
