Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) on Wednesday said he tried to help “as quickly as he could” after a train carrying GOP lawmakers to a retreat collided with a truck earlier in the day.
Wenstrup, a former doctor, told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto that he left the train to attend to injured individuals he saw on the ground after the train he was on collided with a garbage truck in Virginia. One person died in the accident.
“It just felt like if you were driving along and ran over a boulder,” Wenstrup said of the crash. “People didn’t really know what had happened right away. I looked over at my wife and son and they were OK.”
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“And then we realized out the window that we had hit a garbage truck, which was mangled off the side of the road down the hill a little bit,” he continued. “Then someone said there’s a couple guys down there on the ground. As a doctor, I tried to get off as quickly as I could.”
He said Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and the wife of Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), who both also have a medical background, also tried to treat the individuals hurt in the accident.
Wenstrup went on to describe how he gave CPR to several injured people, including one who he believes died instantly in the accident.
GOP lawmakers announced after the accident that the retreat they were headed to in West Virginia would go on as planned.
“After consultation with leadership in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, the retreat will proceed with an adjusted program. Our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by today’s incident,” said a spokesperson for the Congressional Institute.