Sen. Harry Reid’s wife, daughter hurt in car accident

Reporting from Washington —  The wife and daughter of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were seriously injured in a car wreck Thursday when their vehicle was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on a Washington-area interstate, a spokesman said.

Landra Reid and her adult daughter, Lana Reid Barringer, were hospitalized with what doctors described as non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from Jon Summers, a spokesman for the Nevada Democrat.

Landra Reid, 69, suffered the more serious injuries, including a broken back, neck and nose. Lana Reid Barringer, 48, suffered a neck injury and facial lacerations. Both were conscious, and neither had lost feeling in their extremities, the statement said. The daughter was released from the hospital Thursday night, the Associated Press reported.

Reid was told of the accident while participating in a conference call with reporters from rural Nevada, Summers said. He immediately went to the hospital, but later returned to the Capitol to continue negotiations on the healthcare bill.

“Sen. Reid has been to the hospital and appreciates the support he and his family are receiving from Nevadans and his colleagues in the Senate,” the statement said. Reid returned to the hospital Thursday night.

Harry Reid, 70, and Landra Reid were high school sweethearts and have been married since 1959. They have five grown children, including son Rory Reid, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in Nevada.

The four-vehicle chain-reaction crash occurred on Interstate 95 in Fairfax County about 1 p.m., according to a news release from the Virginia State Police. Lana Reid Barringer, a mother of three from McLean, Va., was driving a Honda Odyssey van, with her mother as a passenger, when they were rear-ended by the trailer carrying rolls of plastic, police said. The van crashed into a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which in turn struck a Chevrolet Cobalt.

Everyone involved was wearing seat belts, police said. Two others were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, who was unhurt, was identified by state police as Alan W. Snader, 59, of Ohio. He was charged with reckless driving.

Landra Reid has lived through danger before. In 1981, when her husband was a Nevada gaming commissioner and the mob was a presence in Las Vegas, she noticed something wrong with the family station wagon, she has said. She called an associate of her husband, who called police. The car had been rigged with a bomb, police said.

khennessey@tribune.com