Concussion for Rep. Lewis after train carrying GOP lawmakers hits truck
Updated 4:18 p.m. | Posted 10:59 a.m.
A chartered train carrying dozens of GOP lawmakers to a Republican policy retreat in West Virginia struck a garbage truck in a rural Virginia town on Wednesday. No lawmakers or aides were reported to have serious injuries. But the White House said one person was killed and another was seriously injured.
Lawmakers said the fatality appeared to be someone who was in the truck. One lawmaker who was aboard the train, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the vehicle had been ripped in half and said he saw a person wrapped in tarp and said emergency workers appeared to be "putting a body away."
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Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods says there were no reported injuries to passengers or crew members after the incident, which happened around 11:20 a.m. in Crozet, Va. Crozet is about 15 miles west of Charlottesville.
Minnesota Rep. Jason Lewis was on the train and hit his head during the accident. He was later diagnosed at a Charlottesville, Va., hospital with a concussion.
Lewis was discharged and traveled onto the GOP retreat, where he is recovering.
"Look, I just got my bell rung. It happens. It happens to a lot of people," Lewis said in an interview with MPR News. "That's the least of my worries right now and indeed we're all thinking and praying for the deceased's family. I mean that pales in comparison to anything that happened to me."
Lewis said he was sitting in a seat facing backwards and sustained the injury when his head snapped back.
Minnesota's two other Republican members of Congress, Tom Emmer and Erik Paulsen, were also aboard the train but uninjured.
Cole said he felt "a tremendous jolt" when the accident occurred at about 11:15 a.m. EST, nearly two hours after it left Washington headed to the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The policy retreat, an annual event, is scheduled to last three days and feature speeches from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Cole said the train stopped quickly after impact. He said several GOP lawmakers who are doctors got off the train to assist, including Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, who was also at last June's shooting of Republicans at a baseball practice in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, and treated some of the victims.
Other doctor-lawmakers who helped included Reps. Michael Burgess, of Texas, Phil Roe of Tennessee, Larry Bucshon of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.
Cassidy later tweeted that there were three people on the truck and "one is dead."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was on the train and was unhurt, aides said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was briefed on the accident.
"There is one confirmed fatality and one serious injury," but no injuries to lawmakers or their staffs, she said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has been affected by this incident," Sanders said.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said about 100 Republican lawmakers were on the train when the crash occurred, which made him jump out of his seat.
"I looked out the side of the window and then I could see a truck, just in pieces out the side of the window," Comer said. "It was a garbage truck that was apparently, I would assume, trying to cross the tracks."
Comer said Capitol Police quickly jumped off the train, but came back and asked for any doctors to help. Comer said U.S. Reps. and Brad Wenstrup -- all medical doctors -- rushed to help, including performing CPR on one person.
A GOP aide said the train seemed partially derailed.
It was not clear when lawmakers would resume their trip to their retreat.
MPR News reporter Brian Bakst contributed to this report.