- The train was carrying lawmakers to the Greenbrier hotel
- The party holds an annual retreat there
- President Trump is expected to attend later this week
- The train slammed into a tractor trailer carrying trash
- No major injuries of lawmakers reported
- No immediate information on men inside the truck
A train hauling Republican lawmakers to their annual retreat in West Virginia slammed into a tractor trailer that had crossed the track Wednesday.
Lawmakers revealed some of the immediate damage in the minutes after the crash, which occurred Wednesday afternoon.
Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon shared a photo that showed a truck carrying trash had been upended, with trash strewn all over the ground.
‘I’m on the train w/members of Congress that was just involved in a crash. I’m ok. Most members are ok but serious injuries on the ground,’ wrote Kentucky Rep. James Comer on Twitter.
A train hauling Republican lawmakers to their annual retreat in West Virginia slammed into a tractor trailer that had crossed the track Wednesday
The status of those on board the truck wasn’t immediately clear. ‘They were thrown from the truck and one appears to have been stabilized and air evacuated and the other one I don’t have eyes on right now,’ Rep. French Hill told CNN.
Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was on board the train, CNN reported.
It was en route to the annual retreat at the Greenbrier hotel. Lawmakers annually pile into the train together from Union Station in Washington, D.C.
‘Our train heading to the GOP Retreat in West Virginia has been involved in an accident,’ wrote Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma on Twitter. ‘I am safe but first responders are treating minor injuries on the train & treating the truck drivers. Praying….’
Most of the GOP majority was on board.
Also traveling with them were some spouses and family members.
The local NBC affiliate reported a fatality. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said a person ‘was taken off the site with a tarp over them. So our assumption is that there was a fatality.
it’s a pretty stunning scene, totally unexpected,’ he told CNN.
Various lawmakers said doctors who are members of Congress tended to the wounded.