2 young children killed when drunk driver hits Amish buggy, police say

Two young children were killed Friday when a drunk driver plowed into a horse-drawn buggy on the side of a Michigan highway, authorities said.

A 2-year-old and 6-year-old died when the pickup truck rear-ended the carriage in Marshall, Michigan, just outside Battle Creek, in the central part of the state. Both children died on the scene, Michigan State Police Sgt. Todd Price told ABC News.

There were seven people -- two adults and five children -- in the buggy at the time of the crash. All of them were thrown from the carriage, police said.

In addition to the two children who died, another child, age 4, was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

A 3-year-old child and adult woman were also injured, according to CBS affiliate WWMT.

The driver, whose name has not been released, was intoxicated at the time of the accident, Price said. He is being held in Branch County Jail.

The Amish population in Michigan is about 15,465, according to a study by Elizabethtown College's The Young Center. The school, in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, is located in Lancaster County, which has one of the highest concentrations of Amish people in the country.

Michigan has the sixth-highest Amish population in the country, behind Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and New York.

Last month, a car hit a horse-drawn carriage in California Township, Michigan, about 40 minutes south of Marshall. The driver fled, but no one in the buggy was seriously injured, state police said.