UPDATE:  25-year-old staff volunteer, Braden Joplin, has died from his injuries:

Braden Joplin
Braden Joplin

update-1OMAHA — A Ben Carson campaign volunteer died in a hospital here after a car crash in western Iowa Tuesday morning.

The accident prompted the Republican presidential candidate to cancel campaign stops Tuesday and Wednesday.

A van driven by a Carson campaign staffer, carrying three campaign volunteers, lost control and was struck by another vehicle on icy Interstate Highway 80 Tuesday morning near Atlantic.

branden 2

One volunteer, Braden Joplin, was transported to the University of Nebraska medical center in Omaha with serious injuries. He died in the hospital Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., according to a statement from hospital officials.

The other three people in the van were treated and released at hospital in Atlantic, according to Ryan Rhodes, Carson’s Iowa campaign director.

Carson, who was in South Carolina, canceled Tuesday and Wednesday campaign stops in South Carolina and California, said Jason Osborne, senior communication strategist with the campaign. The retired brain surgeon planned to travel to Omaha Tuesday afternoon.

“Carson will be heading to Omaha as well to be with the family and help in any way he can,” Osborne said.  (read more)

———– EARLIER —————

Prayers for the Carson campaign workers and their families…

Ben Carson(Via ABC) Three student volunteers and a staffer for Ben Carson‘s campaign were injured — including one “gravely” — during an accident in Iowa today, leading the Republican candidate to temporarily suspend his campaign activities.

According to a statement released by the Carson campaign, a van transporting the three volunteers and a campaign field director, “hit a patch of ice and flipped on its side where it was struck by another vehicle” around 11 a.m. local time.

Carson is suspending all campaign activity for the rest of the day in South Carolina to fly to Omaha, Nebraska, where one of the volunteers has been transported to trauma center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.  (read more)

a-prayer-for-times-like-these

Prayers for their recovery and their families.

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