After accident, senator says she’s on medication
A state senator who police say drove erratically for 16 miles before slamming into a stopped car revealed Wednesday that she may have been impaired by medication to combat leukemia.
Sen. Carole Migden’s disclosure of a decadelong battle with cancer was the latest surprise in a drama that began Friday after the San Francisco Democrat’s state-leased SUV rear-ended a car stopped at a red light in Fairfield, between Sacramento and Oakland. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Wulf Corrington said the driver of the car suffered scrapes and bruises and that a 3-year-old in the back was slightly injured.
“She screamed, ‘I’m a senator,’ ” a witness, Adrian Romo, told KTVU-TV on Friday. “She didn’t seem all there at the time.”
Migden’s office originally attributed the accident to inattention when the senator reached for her cellphone. But police said they received six calls leading up to the accident from motorists reporting her car veering along Interstate 80 and other roads and twice striking the center divider.
Police are recommending that she be charged with unsafe driving. The investigation is continuing.
The incident has political import because Migden is being challenged for her seat by a fellow San Francisco Democrat, Assemblyman Mark Leno, creating an intraparty feud that is rare in the Legislature. The primary election is in June 2008.
Wednesday, Migden told the San Francisco Chronicle that she was diagnosed with leukemia in 1997 and told she was unlikely to live more than five years. She said she never publicly revealed the illness because she did not want to be pitied and that she was told in February she was disease-free.
She has been taking chemotherapy pills since 2000, according to the newspaper’s account, which was confirmed by Migden’s office.
“I don’t have a recollection of what happened,” she told the Chronicle, referring to Friday’s accident. “I can only conclude I had a medical event I can’t explain. It’s not an excuse; it may be an explanation.”
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