What We Know About The Car Accident Involving Kamala Harris
Though it has now been made public that Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a minor car accident on Monday, that information was not released until Wednesday evening (via Daily Mail). The first and most important piece of information is that Harris was not injured and after the accident was able to be transferred to another vehicle to continue on her way to the White House, where she was headed at the time of the incident. That said, some details that were initially released have now been proven false.
The initial report released to the public regarding the incident stated that the vice president's motorcade hit a curb with enough speed to disable one of the car's wheels and cited a "mechanical failure" as the cause of the accident. However, once agents present at the scene were able to give details to the Secret Service in person, their story revealed that the cause of the accident was not a mechanical failure, but an "overcorrection" of the driver in a tunnel near the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
Fuller accounts of the incident provided clarity and relief
When Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the White House after this minor accident, she was examined by medics who confirmed that she was unharmed (via Daily Mail). And while the minor incident ended without injury or major issue, an anonymous source reported that Kimberly Cheatle, head of the Secret Service, was "disturbed" by the innacuracy of the alert that she initially received regarding the accident.
The same source claims that Cheatle was "relieved to get the fuller account later that day" once agents present at the scene were able to accurately report what had happened (via Daily Mail). A TikTok video of the incident, which was filmed from too far away to clearly make out faces, seems to show the vice president standing safely outside of the vehicle that had hit the curb whilst her motorcade of black vehicles was stopped by the entrance of the tunnel, which aligns with the latest details given the Secret Service about what happened.
Harris remains well and is going about her usual duties this week, undeterred by the incident.