By Tricia Pursell
MIDDLEBURG — A Middleburg man was arraigned Wednesday on charges of hitting a horse-drawn buggy last Thursday in Penns Creek and then fleeing the scene.
James Dean Leitzel, 45, of 3119 Richard Road, has been charged with six counts of causing an accident involving personal injury, an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle, driving a vehicle at an unsafe speed, careless driving and failure to give information and render aid.
He was released on unsecured $50,000 bail.
Delores Horning, of Middleburg, and five of her children were injured in the accident. One child, a 5-year-old boy, suffered a fractured skull, but has returned to his family home.
Red paint was found on the buggy, and the right turn signal from the vehicle was found at the scene.
State police received an anonymous phone tip on Monday that led them to Leitzel and the 1990 maroon Chevrolet Lumina he had been driving.
Leitzel told police that he was planning to turn himself in, and that the accident happened after he dropped a cigarette and bent down to pick it up. He then panicked and fled the crash scene, he told officers.
