Kerry Kennedy blames seizure for Westchester smash-up, pleads not guilty in court Police had said Kennedy flunked a battery of field sobriety tests: She had trouble standing on leg and following instructions to walk and turn. The mother of three was swaying and slurring her words -- though she was able to recite the alphabet. 
 
 Kerry Kennedy says her erradic driving, crash and slurred speech were the result of a seizure. 
 
 Kerry Kennedy pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an impaired driving charge stemming from last week's death-defying smashup on a Westchester highway -- and said a seizure was to blame. 
 
 In a statement she read outside court, Gov. Cuomo's ex-wife said doctors told her a problem with her brain caused her to drive erratically and pass out during a three-mile tear last Friday morning. 
 
 "This accident was caused not by a sleeping pill but by a complex partial seizure," she said. [Doctors] assure me that with robust investigation and treatment I'll be able to live symptom-free. 
 
 "I apologize to the other drivers who were on the road that day," she said before thanking her sister Rory and brother Chris for standing by her since the crash. 
 
 Her statement came hours after police released their report, which said Kennedy, 52, was "slumped over the wheel" of her running Lexus after an erratic tear down Interstate 684. 
 
 It said she told cops she might have mixed up the sleep aid Ambien with her thyroid medication. 
 
 Police also said Kennedy flunked a battery of field sobriety tests: She had trouble standing on leg and following instructions to walk and turn. The mother of three was swaying and slurring her words -- though she was able to recite the alphabet. 
 
 Kennedy -- daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and niece of President Kennedy -- was arrested Friday on Route 22, where she drove her damaged sedan after smacking into a tractor trailer. 
 
 The truck driver, Rocco Scuiletti, 47, of Poughkeepsie, said he had no idea a member of the star-crossed Camelot clan had hit him until news of Kennedy's bust made the papers. 
 
 "When I first saw her in my left sideview mirror she was in the extreme left lane. She was swerving. She cut off a few cars before she caught up with me," he said. 
 
 He said she pulled into the center lane next to him, then began drifting into his lane, where he was going 65 mph. 
 
 "At that point I pulled in to the breakdown lane," he said, adding that he hit the horn.? 
 
 "She was unresponsive. She looked like she was nodding off."? 
 
 Sculetti said Kennedy pulled back into the center lane, allowing him to leave the breakdown lane -- but then "she started swerving into my lane again."? 
 
 And now there was a broken down truck ahead in the breakdown lane, so he had to remain in the right lane.? 
 
 "I couldn't go anywhere so she slammed into me," he said. 
 
 "At that point I could see she woke up - but not a lot. Her first instinct was to floor it and try to flee the scene. 
 
 "She didn't realize the lugnuts from my tractor tore off her right front tire. She didn't get more than 25 feet before her tire blew. The tire came clean off in one piece. 
 
 "She sped to get off the exit and cut off three more cars in the process," he said. "That's the last I saw of her. I was pulling a full load of 80,000 pounds so I couldn't follow her."? 
 
 He said that after he came forward this week, state troopers called him and took a statement. He said they may issue him a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident.??"It was unusual to see someone with that much disregard for herself and other people on the road," he said. 
 
 Kennedy's crash came weeks after her best friend and sister-in-law, Mary Kennedy, hanged herself. The suicide drove a wedge between Mary's family and her widower, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and sparked a battle over custody of her remains. ||||| Kerry Kennedy, ex-wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said doctors believe her recent auto accident on a highway was caused not by illegal drugs or a sleeping pill, but by a seizure stemming from an old brain injury. 
 
 FILE - In this June 30, 2003 file photo, Carrie Kennedy-Cuomo and her husband, Andrew Cuomo are photographed together in New York. Police say that Kennedy, the former wife of New York Governor Andrew... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2012 file photo, Kerry Kennedy, attends the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 2010 Ripple of Hope Awards Dinner New York. Police say the former wife of New... (Associated Press) 
 
 Kennedy pleaded not guilty Tuesday night in North Castle Town Court to a charge of driving while drug-impaired. She was released but must submit to fingerprinting by state police and to evaluation by a substance abuse agency. She is due back in court Aug. 14. 
 
 Kennedy, 52, was arrested Friday after state police said her Lexus struck a tractor-trailer on a highway north of New York City. Police said she then took an exit off the highway before her car became disabled. 
 
 A police report released Tuesday said Kennedy failed several sobriety tests and was swaying and slurring her speech. 
 
 Kennedy said she remembers getting on the highway to go to the gym "and then I have no memory until I was stopped at a traffic light and a police officer was at my car door." 
 
 She said she felt "confused and erratic" and told the officer she might have accidentally taken an Ambien sleeping pill instead of her daily thyroid pill. But drug tests later that day showed "no alcohol, recreational drugs or prescription medication in my system," she said. 
 
 Tests on blood and urine that the court will rely on have not yet been completed, Town Justice Elyse Lazansky said. 
 
 Kennedy, daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and niece of President John F. Kennedy, said she then underwent neurological tests in Manhattan. An MRI revealed "an area of hyper density" in her brain that apparently resulted from a head injury she said she suffered some time ago, she said. 
 
 She said the tests led doctors to believe "that this accident was caused not by a sleeping aid but by a complex partial seizure." 
 
 Kennedy said she would continue to receive treatment for the condition and should be able to live "symptom-free." 
 
 She apologized to the driver of the tractor-trailer she hit and other drivers on the road Friday morning. 
 
 It has been a difficult year for Kennedy family members in the New York suburbs. Kennedy's close friend and sister-in-law, Mary Kennedy, hanged herself at home in May. Her brother Douglas Kennedy is fighting charges stemming from his attempt to take his newborn son from a maternity ward. 
 
 Kerry Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo married in 1990, joining two of America's most prominent political families. They split in 2003 in a messy public divorce that played out in the tabloids. They have three daughters.
– Kerry Kennedy may have appeared to be high on drugs when she was busted last week after crashing her Lexus into a tractor-trailer rig, but she was actually suffering a "partial seizure," she has explained to a judge. Kennedy, daughter of Bobby Kennedy and ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, failed a number of field sobriety tests following the Westchester highway wreck, according to local cops. She was found slumped over the steering wheel, was unable to stand on one leg, slurred her words, and had difficulty following instructions to walk and turn, according to a police report. She told officers at the time that she may have mixed up the sedative Ambien with thyroid medication. But yesterday, the 52-year-old mom of three explained outside court that docs told her a "problem" with her brain caused by an undisclosed old injury triggered a "complex partial seizure" and caused her to drive erratically and pass out, reports AP. She made the statement after pleading not guilty to charges that she was driving while impaired by drugs. Results from blood tests are pending. She said after treatment she should be "symptom free." The driver of the truck Kennedy plowed into said he spotted her swerving and drifting into his lane. He honked his horn, but she was "unresponsive" and appeared to be "nodding off," he told the New York Daily News. She revived, slightly, after she slammed into his truck, and tried to flee the scene, he said. "She didn't realize the lug nuts from my tractor tore off her right front tire. She didn't get more than 25 feet before her tire blew," he explained.