Wagon driver injured after horses run away in South Asheville
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A woman was sent to the hospital after a pair horses pulling her covered wagon reportedly became spooked and ran away along a busy road in South Asheville.
Police say the driver, who suffered non-life threatening injuries, has been traveling across the country with her horses to raise awareness for child hunger.
Angela Wood said she was feeding the horses and did a stupid thing -- stepped between the wagon and the horses when they got spooked.
"Got ran over by my wagon," Wood said.
Roxanne Rodriguez says she was riding behind the wagon Wednesday afternoon when the incident happened. She said the horses became spooked by ambulance sirens and took off.
Rodriguez said she saw Wood and the buggy near TC Roberson High School.
"She couldn’t get them to stop running, and they were jumping up on the sidewalk and just about flipped the wagon,” she said.
Jeremy Cress, a News 13 staff member, spotted the runaway horses as they ran down Long Shoals Road and turned into Biltmore Park.
Cress said he followed behind the horses along Schenck Parkway, eventually climbing onto the buggy and stopping them.
"After we got them slowed down, I stopped the car, hopped out, ran up to the horses, [and] grabbed the lead to try and get them to stop," Cress recalled. "They wouldn't stop pulling on the leads. So, I hopped up on the trailer, grabbed the break and pulled the brake and held it until they stopped."
Cress said he found a small dog inside the wagon after getting the runaway horses under control.
Asheville police and animal control services responded to the scene along Schenck Parkway. The dog was taken by animal control and the horses were taken to a farm in Black Mountain for now.
The horse and buggy was part of a "Childhood Hunger Awareness Trek," as noted on a sign attached to the side of the wagon. Angela L. Wood's name was printed on the sign, as well as a link to a Facebook page for the cause.
A post on Wood's Facebook page said, "I am alive and will be well have head wound and a lot of bruising."
Wednesday afternoon, Black Mountain Mayor Don Collins came to pick up the horses to take to a barn until Wood can get them again.
"Anytime we have a situation like this where we have accidents, or horses get loose, and we don't know who the owners are, and they're running across traffic things like that, they'll call me," said Collins. "I’ll take the harness off of them. Put them in the stalls. Feed them and water them, and we’ll keep them till the lady is ready to come pick them up and go from there."
