WASHINGTON
— An Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to their annual policy
retreat crashed into a large truck in rural Virginia on Wednesday,
killing one of the truck’s passengers.
Two
other passengers from the truck were injured — one seriously — and
taken to a hospital. Two members of the train’s crew and three
passengers, including Representative Jason Lewis, Republican of
Minnesota, were also taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The
crash occurred around 11:20 a.m. about 10 miles northwest of
Charlottesville. By early afternoon, the train was on its way back to
Charlottesville, where buses were waiting to finish the trip. The
National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.
Republicans
had chartered the train to carry them from Washington to the Greenbrier
resort in West Virginia, where the party is holding its annual policy
retreat through Friday. Several lawmakers who were aboard the train
estimated that more than half of the Republican members of the House and
Senate, including Speaker Paul D. Ryan, were on board, many with
spouses.
Mr. Ryan spoke by phone with President Trump to update him after the crash, White House officials said.
The
crash was a jarring start to an annual tradition that is intended to
let lawmakers escape the noise of the Capitol for a few days to
socialize and set priorities for the coming year. This year’s retreat is
scheduled to include remarks by Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence
and other members of the Cabinet.
Instead, lawmakers still tired from attending Tuesday night’s State of the Union address
found themselves staring out the window at a violent crash scene,
wondering if anyone had been hurt as what appeared to be a large, white
garbage truck lay mangled on its side. The trailer of the truck was
separated from its cab during the collision and garbage was strewn in
all directions around the vehicle.
“It
was a pretty shocking event,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma,
who was seated in the last car of the train and had a clear view
through the window. Mr. Cole was standing in the aisle at the time of
impact and managed to stay on his feet, but others were knocked to the
floor.
Senator
Bill Cassidy, a first-term Republican from Louisiana, said he was
sleeping when a loud noise and jarring motion awoke him. He saw fellow
lawmakers and staff members knocked over in the train’s center aisle.
“I’m
a physician and when you are a physician you are aware that at any
moment bad things can happen,” Mr. Cassidy said in an interview later.
A
group including Mr. Cassidy, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and a
handful of former doctors, including Representatives Brad Wenstrup of
Ohio, Michael C. Burgess of Texas, Phil Roe of Tennessee, Larry Buschon
of Indiana and Roger Marshall of Kansas all raced backward through the
train to find an exit. Mr. Cassidy’s wife, a retired doctor, as well as a
House doctor soon joined them. So did Mr. Buschon’s wife, Kathryn, an
anesthesiologist; she tried unsuccessfully to intubate one of the
victims.
Mr. Cole watched them stream through his car one by one and argue with Amtrak personnel to let them disembark.
“They were demanding, ‘Get me off this train,’” he said in an interview. “We weren’t going to stop them.”
“You think of them as members of Congress, but they’re trained physicians,” he added. “They really wanted off this train.”
At
the crash site, Mr. Cassidy said, it was quickly clear that one of the
three men who had been riding in the truck was already dead. From
inside, Mr. Cole could see a tarp pulled over the man. Another was on
his feet, hurt but not seriously.
Mr.
Cassidy said he and the others focused on a third man in serious
condition. They lifted his legs to try to get blood to his head and
heart. Another performed CPR. Eventually paramedics arrived to take the
man to the hospital.
“We worked on him for about 20 minutes, and then put him on a stretcher and carried him to the ambulance,” Mr. Flake said.
Authorities
did not immediately identity the truck’s passengers. The mangled truck
indicated that it belonged to Time Disposal, a waste and recycling
collection service that operates in the area.
For lawmakers like Mr. Flake, the episode brought back memories of another still-fresh tragedy: when a lone gunman opened fire on
members of the congressional baseball team last June, gravely wounding
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, members of the Capitol Police
and a lobbyist.
“It was all too reminiscent of the baseball shooting,” Mr. Flake said. “Similar type of feeling.”
By the time the train was moving again, Mr. Cassidy said, the mood was somber.
“I don’t think anybody’s gathered their thoughts as to what to do next,” he said.
In
a statement after the crash, the group putting on the conference said
the retreat would proceed mostly as planned. The retreat would now
include a moment of prayer for the victims, as well as a security
briefing from the House sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol Police.
3 comments:
Let's face it, most of the government is a train wreck. It is getting better though Ken T.
This sounds like a MSM account of what happened. Read posts a day or two later and see what likely really happened.
False Flag stopped...
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