Top US senator hospitalized after car crash

WASHINGTON: US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was hospitalized Friday after his car was involved in an accident on a highway in his home state of Nevada, police said.

The injury to the 72-year-old top Democrat in the Senate "does not appear to be life-threatening," Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Loy Hixson told AFP.

Reid's multi-car caravan was traveling on an interstate through Las Vegas when "the vehicles were involved in an accident with a civilian vehicle," the police trooper added.

The senator was transported by a vehicle in his own caravan to the University Medical Center, while a Reid aide who was not identified was slightly injured in the crash but not taken to hospital, Hixson said.

US lawmakers, many of whom are currently running for re-election, are on recess, with most in their home districts either campaigning or helping colleagues stump for votes ahead of election day on November 6.

Reid, a former congressman who once served as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, has served in the Senate since 1987 and is one of President Barack Obama's most powerful allies in Congress.(AFP)