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This photo provided by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, shows a crash site near Crozet, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018. A chartered train carrying dozens of GOP lawmakers to a Republican retreat in West Virginia struck a garbage truck south of Charlottesville, Virginia on Wednesday, lawmakers said.
Rep. Greg Walden via APBy Patrick McGerr
An Indiana lawmaker helped provide medical assistance after the train he was on collided with a garbage truck in Virginia Wednesday.
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-8th District) was one of four Indiana lawmakers on the train. While none of them were hurt, at least one person in the garbage truck died and another is seriously injured.
The sudden crash happened in a rural Virginia town and caught the lawmakers by surprise.
“We were going at about full speed and all of a sudden there was a big jolt and we kind of all lurched forward,” Bucshon says.
Bucshon and his wife Kathryn quickly sprang into action once they determined they were unhurt.
“My wife, Kathryn, and I, we’re both physicians, we went towards the back of the train as did other physicians who are in Congress and went to the scene and did what we could to assist the victims,” Bucshon says.
The chartered train carried Republican lawmakers from across the country to a party retreat in West Virginia.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Rep. Jim Banks (R-3rd District) and Rep. Susan Brooks (R-5th District) were also on the train and were unharmed.
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