Four youngsters from the religious Amish community have been charged with under age drinking after their horse-drawn carriage crashed into a police car.

Three men aged 19 and 20, and an 18-year-old woman, were arrested after the collision in Sherman, New York state, when several containers of alcohol were found in their buggy. The legal drinking age in New York is 21.

The Amish are a Christian community known for their simple lifestyle, shunning modern technology and retaining 18th century forms of dress…

The four youngsters are alleged to have been at an under age drinking party on a back road near the state border with Pennsylvania, where most Amish families live, when they set out for a drive in two carriages.

As the buggies allegedly wove across a public road, one, driven by Marty Troyer, 20, with Marianne Troyer, 18, and Marvin Byler, 19, as passengers, collided with a Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department patrol car which was on its way to investigate reports of illegal drinking.

The buggy flipped over, trapping Byler’s leg and leading a horse to become loose. Twenty-year-old Leroy Troyer, who was driving the second buggy, was also arrested…

The three Troyers are related but do not live in the same house. Byler was not seriously injured in the collision.

The headline says it all, eh? Being religious, moral and restrained by parental and community rules is no guarantee against stupid.