Harry Reid Taken to Hospital After Multi-Car Accident
Updated 6:37 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been cleared for release from a Las Vegas-area hospital after his caravan was involved in a multi-car highway accident this afternoon.
The 72-year-old Reid suffered what were being described in a statement from his Senate office as “rib and hip contusions.”
“Senator Reid and his security detail were involved in a traffic accident today on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas. Senator Reid was taken to University Medical Center Hospital by his security detail as a precaution, and walked in on his own,” Reid’s office said in the statement. “Senator Reid was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident.”
An aide and members of the security detail accompanying Reid were evaluated at the same hospital for “minor injuries.” Reid has a U.S. Capitol Police protection detail because of his role as Majority Leader.
Initial reports about the accident prompted veteran Reid observers to recall a 2010 car accident involving his wife, Landra. She suffered a broken back, neck and nose, along with other injuries when a tractor-trailer rear-ended the vehicle she and her daughter were riding in on Interstate 95 in Virginia.
Earlier today, Reid took part in a ceremony dedicating the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.
Reid had planned to meet later in the day with the editorial board of El Tempo, a Spanish-language newspaper published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the newspaper said.
The Associated Press quoted the Nevada Highway Patrol, which said the accident appeared to be a chain-reaction rear-end crash. It included two Las Vegas police vehicles, at least one private car and two Capitol Police vehicles. The crash happened about 1 p.m. on Interstate 15, which runs parallel to the Las Vegas strip.