Senate Majority Leader Reid Suffers Bruises in Car Crash

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suffered bruises and was taken to a hospital in his home state of Nevada after being involved in an auto accident, his office said.

Reid, 72, was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas after a six-car accident today on an interstate highway in the city, said Jeremie Elliott, a Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman. The accident involved two private cars, two city police vehicles and two Capitol Police vehicles, Elliott said in a telephone interview.

Reid, who suffered rib and hip bruises, was cleared for release by doctors, his office said in an e-mailed statement. He was taken to the hospital “as a precaution” and walked in on his own, the statement said. Reid was wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident, it said.

Some members of Reid’s security detail and a staff member were evaluated at the hospital for minor injuries, according to the statement.

Reid, a Democrat from Searchlight, Nevada, was first elected to the Senate in 1986 and became majority leader in 2007.

In 2010, Reid’s wife, Landra, and the couple’s daughter, Lana, were injured when their car was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer truck on a Virginia highway near Washington. Reid said at the time that his wife suffered a broken neck and back during the accident and that his daughter “was cut up and shook up” and suffered dizziness.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net