Kerry Kennedy Tested Positive For Ambien On Day Of Car Accident

Kerry Kennedy tested positive for the generic form of Ambien on the day she was found slumped over the steering wheel of her SUV after side swiping a truck.

Newsday reports that last week Kennedy pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor of driving while drugged. While she did mention Ambien in a statement to police when she was arrested, but initially blamed her erratic driving on a “complex partial seizure.”

Her spokesman, Ken Sunshine, stated that blood and urine tests that were privately analyzed “showed no drugs or alcohol whatsoever in her system,” however, a blood test she took while at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco showed that Kerry Kennedy tested positive for Zolpidem, generic for Ambien. No alcohol was found in her system.

Kennedy issued a statement on Wednesday that acknowledged the blood test results, stating that she told the officer on July 13th that she may have accidentally taken Ambien instead of her thyroid medicine.

The New York Times notes that Janet DiFiore, the Westchester district attorney, filed papers confirming Kennedy’s statement that she told the officer both medications were “next to each other on her counter, and it is possible she took the sleep medication instead of the thyroid medication.”

In Kerry Kennedy’s statement on Wednesday, she said:

“The results we received today from the Westchester County lab showed trace amounts of a sleep aid in my system, so it now appears that my first instinct was correct. I am deeply sorry to all those I endangered that day, and am enormously grateful for the support I have received over the past two weeks.”

When speaking about the accident after her arraignment, Kerry Kennedy recalled that:

“I remember getting on the highway and then I have no memory until I was stopped at a traffic light and a police officer was at my car door. In my discussion with the police officer, I was confused and erratic.”

Are you surprised that Ambien was found in Kerry Kennedy’s blood on the day of her car accident?

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