Car Crash Adds Another Twist to Kennedy Saga

The Kennedy family saga of tragedy and scandal took another turn yesterday after Patrick Kennedy, a Democratic congressman, driving in an apparently disoriented state in the middle of the night, crashed his car into a police barricade near the Capitol. A police report of the accident indicated the influence of alcohol.

Mr Kennedy is the younger son of the senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, whose political career was irretrievably damaged by his involvement in a fatal car crash, and is arguably the most prominent member of the next generation of that star-crossed clan after cousin John Jr, a magazine publisher, was killed in a plane crash in 1999.

In a statement late on Thursday, the congressman blamed the accident on two medications for sleeping difficulties and for nausea he said had been prescribed by Capitol Hill doctors.

He said he had left his home in the early hours of Thursday and got into his car believing he had been summoned to Congress. "Sometime around 2.45am, I drove the few blocks to the Capitol complex believing I needed to vote," he said. However, the last vote had been held six hours earlier. Mr Kennedy, aged 38, also insisted he had not had any alcohol. He was not hurt in the accident, and police drove him home.

But any hopes he may have had in ending the incident there evaporated yesterday amid accusations that he had received special treatment from police and that he may have been drunk. The police report said Mr Kennedy's eyes were red and watery, his speech was slurred and he appeared to be staggering.

Greg Baird, the acting head of the Capitol police union, allegedly claimed officers were not permitted to subject Mr Kennedy to a sobriety test, and that a watch commander ordered them to leave the scene.