Perriello talks about accident

Rep. Tom Perriello said Monday that his traffic crash in Nottoway County on Friday night was “one of those things that can happen anywhere.”

State troopers charged Perriello with making an improper lane change after his 2005 Ford Ranger pickup sideswiped a Ford Explorer carrying four people, sending it into the grassy median.

Ashley Robertson, 23, a passenger in the SUV, was taken by ambulance to Farmville Medical Center to be treated for minor injuries. Perriello said she “banged her knee a little bit, and they insisted on taking her in.”

Perriello, a Democrat, said he had just left Farmville where author John Grisham had joined him in a 5^th District campaign appearance in his race against Republican challenger Robert Hurt.

Perriello said during an interview with The News & Advance editorial board Monday that he was headed to South Hill, where he planned to spend the night before making his next campaign appearance on Saturday in Lawrenceville.

The accident occurred on U.S. 460 a short distance east of Burkeville, where U.S. 360 splits off from the highway.

“We just sort of swiped into each other during a lane change, and they went down the hill at, luckily, not too fast of a clip. I threw on the brakes, and everyone walked away,” the congressman said.

Perriello said he didn’t think of making a news announcement himself about the crash. “It didn’t feel like that big of a deal at the time,” he said. “I guess, given who I am, it should always be” treated as a news-making event, but “we exchanged insurance as you do when you hit someone else’s car.”

“The air bags didn’t deploy, there was no screeching, and really it felt more like a fender bender, had it been fenders. But it was the two sides of the cars. So that was pretty much that,” Perriello said.

An off-duty police officer following two cars behind Perriello saw the accident, which “was one of the reasons they felt they could rule a lot of things out” concerning the crash, Perriello said.

“I signaled” for the lane change, “I was moving over, and they were in the blind spot,” Perriello said.

Neither speed nor alcohol was a factor, state police said.

Perriello also said he was not texting, eating or talking on the phone. “Not that I would text, ever, because that is illegal,” he said.

The impact may have done significant damage to Perriello’s pickup, which he has used as his mobile office for the past 2-½ years as he has driven about 100,000 miles making campaign and official appearances.

“The serious side of this was everyone being OK. But once that was clear, I must say that as I was unpacking the truck that night, I felt the lyrics of every country song ever written about ‘I remember the time when we went through this together and that together,’ ” Perriello said.

“I had three or four outfits hanging in back for whatever came up. Things were pinned up from some fun events, and things like when my dad passed, and stuff.

“It had been kind of like my home packed into a small space.”

But the accident delivered a hard blow to the truck’s axle.

“I think my truck has made its last campaign stop for this cycle,” Perriello said.

“I’m not confident that thing is getting fixed in the next 15 days” before the Nov. 2 election, he said.