Bush Injured While Diving to Avoid Overturning Truck

Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential front-runner, sustained minor injuries to his right leg and hip Monday when he dived to avoid a truck trailer that overturned near his jogging path.

Bush was treated at the scene and later traveled to New Hampshire for a scheduled campaign visit, said Linda Edwards, his press secretary.

Bush said he felt fine. “If I needed to I could go out and run three miles,” he said after arriving at the Berlin Municipal Airport in New Hampshire.

Staff Sgt. Roscoe Hughey, a 39-year-old Texas Department of Public Safety agent who was accompanying Bush on a bicycle, received bruises to his left side, department spokeswoman Tela Mange said. He was treated at the Brackenridge Hospital emergency room and released about four hours later, said hospital spokeswoman Stephanie Elsea.

Hughey is a member of Bush’s security detail.

Bush was running on the hike-and-bike trail around Town Lake in downtown Austin when the accident occurred about 12:06 p.m., according to Edwards and the Austin Police Department.

A truck pulling a dumpster-like trailer was traveling on a street that parallels the jogging trail when the trailer overturned. Debris, including chunks of concrete and wood, was dumped across the jogging path.

“I was at the end of a 3-mile run when I heard the noise, looked back, saw it start to tip and my instincts were to dive,” Bush said by telephone from New Hampshire.

He said he scraped his right leg and hip when he dived behind a bridge support, but he was not struck by debris from the truck.

“I’ve got a significant strawberry,” Bush said.

Austin police spokeswoman Sally Muir said the accident remained under investigation and that no charges had been filed as of Monday afternoon. Police did not immediately release the truck driver’s name.