Rep. Kennedy in 3 a.m. crash near Capitol
Says he didn't use alcohol, medicine disoriented him
WASHINGTON -- Representative Patrick J. Kennedy was involved in a car accident near the US Capitol at about 3 a.m. yesterday, reportedly nearly colliding head-on with a Capitol Police car before hitting a security barrier near the US Capitol.
In a statement released around 6 p.m., Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he had not been drinking. ''I was involved in a traffic incident last night at First and C St., SE, near the Capitol. I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident," he said. ''I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake."
Three hours after that statement, Kennedy, the youngest son of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his first wife, Joan, released another saying he had taken sleep medication and a prescription antinausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy said the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat gastroenteritis.
He said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a series of votes in Congress and took prescribed amounts of Phenergan and Ambien, another prescribed drug that he occasionally takes to fall asleep.
''Some time around 2:45 a.m., I drove the few blocks to the Capitol Complex believing I needed to vote," his second statement said. ''Apparently, I was disoriented from the medication."
But Lou Cannon, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union that represents the Capitol Police, said last night that officers ''noted an odor of alcohol and that [Kennedy] appeared to be intoxicated." Cannon was not on the scene, but received verbal reports from Capitol Police officers who had talked to the officers who were at the accident site.
The area where the crash occurred is closely patrolled by Capitol Police, and they were on the scene almost immediately. Kennedy, a six-term congressman, reportedly told them that he was on his way to vote, although the last vote of the night had been three hours earlier.
Cannon said that when supervisors arrived, it was determined that Kennedy would be driven home. He was not given a field sobriety test. Given the circumstances, Cannon said, anyone else ''would have probably left the scene in handcuffs."
The union has written a letter to the chief of the Capitol Police ''to ensure that an investigation does continue," Cannon said. ''We're not saying that anything improper was done, we just want to make sure that the investigation goes forward."
In his second statement, Kennedy said, ''At no time did I ask for any special consideration. I simply complied with what the officers asked me to do."
The
The accident was first reported by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
Kennedy, 38, has acknowledged treatment for bipolar disorder and has said previously that he has taken antidepressants. When asked by The Providence Journal earlier in the day if medication may have contributed to the crash, Kennedy's chief of staff, Sean Richardson, would not comment.
The episode was Kennedy's second accident in two weeks. In late April, Kennedy was involved in a minor collision while turning into a
The Capitol Police blotter yesterday noted that the department was investigating ''a traffic violation that occurred in the early morning hours on May 4, 2006, in the 100 Block of C Street, SE," but did not detail the incident. Capitol Police did not return calls seeking further comment.
Kennedy has had some legal problems in the past. In 2000, the congressman was accused of damaging a yacht after an alleged argument with a female companion on the boat. That same year, Kennedy was captured on videotape shoving a female security guard at an airport, an episode for which he apologized.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. 