Ben Carson Volunteer Dies in Car Crash, Presidential Candidate Temporarily Halts Campaign
Another bad news hits the Ben Carson campaign as a volunteer named Braden Joplin died in a car crash while on the road on official duty. He was 25 years old.
According to TIME, at around 9:30 a.m. of Tuesday, Jan. 19, Joplin, along with three other people working for Carson, hit an icy patch on the road near Atlantic, Iowa. It resulted into their van losing control and getting flipped over. It was then got hit by another vehicle.
Nebraska Medicine, the hospital where Braden was brought to, released a statement and said that he died at around 4:30 p.m. the same day.
He was brought to the hospital in critical condition, while his three companions were immediately treated and released the same day. As for Carson, he said that he will temporarily halt his campaign events for that day to make time and meet Joplin's family in Omaha.
In a related report by The Des Moines Register, Carson held a brief press conference in honor of Braden and said that, "I had the opportunity to get to know (Braden) and the thing that impressed me the most is how compassionate he was and how caring he was about the feelings of other people."
He went on to say that he hopes that his death will not be in vain, as the volunteer wished that America to become a "kinder and a gentler place."
As a tribute, Carson watched a video of Joplin making yard signs for the campaign. He praised the young man's tenacity and his accomplishments, despite having his life cut short.
Braden Joplin was a student attending the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and had been in Iowa since earlier this month to help with Ben Carson's campaign.
The Republican presidential hopeful also mentioned the name of the other three victims in the crash and also sent his condolences to others also involved in the accident.
Apart from the Carson staff, five people that include three children, were inside the pick-up truck that hit Braden's van. The child victims were then transported to the nearby children's hospital in Omaha, but as of press time, their medical condition is still not available.
The three other staff that got injured in the accident were Jonathan McCall, Aaron Ohnemuhs and Ryan Patrick Shellooe.
According to Iowa Sgt. Nathan Ludwig, the roads around those parts of the state are very icy during this time of the year.
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