GOP Guv Candidate Investigated For Fatal Crash After Driving For Miles With Motorcycle Stuck To Car

PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 25: 'Welcome To The Pennsylvania Turnpike' signage on Interstate 76 on August 25, 2016 in Pennsylvania. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
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A Pennsylvania Republican running for governor was reportedly seen driving for several miles with a motorcycle stuck to the front of his vehicle after a fatal crash, according to the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Charlie Gerow, a Republican running for Pennsylvania governor, is under investigation for his role in the car accident. A person told the AP that he witnessed a car driving with a motorcycle attached to the front of the car after the accident, moving at a high speed. The crash prompted the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Chester County to be shut down for several hours. Gerow has maintained that he was not the “cause” of the fatal accident.

Gerow, who also serves as the first vice chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the American Conservative Union, on Friday said that he is cooperating with a police investigation into the incident.

Gerow’s spokesperson, Kevin Harley, confirmed to the Inquirer that Gerow was the driver and is currently “cooperating fully with the investigation and will continue to do so.”

“He looks forward to the State Police completing their investigations and is confident that the investigation will confirm that he was not the cause of the accident,” Harley wrote in an email to the Inquirer. “He has been advised that he should not discuss the matter further until the investigation has been completed.”

Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to local media that the crash involving Gerow happened on Wednesday night on the turnpike in an area that runs through Tredyffrin Township. In a news release, police said the turnpike was closed for seven hours after the accident in the westbound lanes in Chester County, according to the AP.

The state police report that was released on Thursday did not name Gerow. It stated that the crash involved a Honda motorcycle and a Mercedes Benz 300. An investigation is active and ongoing to “determine the circumstances surrounding the Mercedes.” On Friday, Chester County Coroner Christina VandePol identified the victim as Logan Carl Abbott, 30, of Bradford County, according to the AP and the Inquirer.

Nicholas Forgette, a highway construction worker who was working on the turnpike Wednesday evening, told the Inquirer on Friday that he was on the opposite side of the highway as he witnessed Gerow’s car pass by with a motorcycle wedged into the grill of his car.

Forgette said he noticed sparks coming off the car that was traveling at high speed, which put him and other members of his construction crew in a state of “disbelief.”

“That is not something you see every day. It was a big motorcycle, too. There were a bunch of sparks. And it was very loud,” Forgette told the Inquirer.

Forgette added that Gerow was pulled over by state police several miles from where he first saw him. Forgette told the Inquirer that he recalls seeing Gerow sitting on a guardrail, lacking facial expressions and appearing “kind of disconnected.”

Forgette recounted seeing the motorcycle on Gerow’s car “sitting upright, with the side stuck into the front of the car.”

TPM reached out the Pennsylvania State Police for comment.

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