Train carrying members of Congress, including Arizonans, involved in crash

PHOENIX — A train carrying members of Congress, including a handful from Arizona, was involved in a crash with a truck on Wednesday, officials said.

Rep. Paul Gosar said at least one person in the truck was killed. Two other people in the truck were injured.

“We went out (of the train) — one gentleman is deceased from the truck,” he told KTAR News 92.3 FM. “One has severe head trauma. He’s fighting for his life.

“The driver was ambulatory and talking. He was escorted to the ambulance.”

Gosar said it appeared the man who was killed and the other who was severely injured were ejected in the crash.

Sen. Jeff Flake was also aboard the train with his wife. He said he was near the front of the train when it hit the truck.

“It was loud and it was harsh,” he told CNN. “It threw everybody kind of up in their seats.”

Flake said he walked down the exterior of the train after the crash to try to find people who needed help getting into an ambulance. He said he saw people trying to save the life of at least one person.

Rep. David Schweikert said he, his wife and their 2-year-old daughter were not injured.

“The train does this large lurch and comes to a sudden halt,” he told KTAR News 92.3 FM. “People and things went flying.”

Schweikert said the mood was relatively calm after the crash but it appeared people near him had some minor injuries.

“We have a handful of members who are medical doctors, so they’re attending to the folks.”

Rep. Martha McSally tweeted that she was fine after the crash.

I'm on the train that crashed, but I'm ok. Please join me in praying for the health of those who are injured.

— Martha McSally (@RepMcSally) January 31, 2018

Gosar said the train was derailed and buses were coming to pick up the lawmakers.

The train was carrying Republican members of Congress from Union Station in Washington, D.C. to a policy retreat the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia when the crash happened.

Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were scheduled to appear at the retreat but were not on the train.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there were no serious injuries to any lawmaker or members of their staffs.

Oklahoma GOP Rep. Tom Cole said he believed the accident occurred south of Charlottesville, Virginia.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said in a Wednesday night conference said they will continuing investigating on-scene for several days, but the complete investigation could last for another couple of months.

KTAR News’ Jeremy Foster and Martha Maurer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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