Chappaquiddick incident

Chappaquiddick incident, incident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, U.S., that occurred July 18–19, 1969, in which Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car driven off a bridge by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.

The youngest of nine children of ambitious parents, Kennedy’s long life of public service was marred by personal difficulties and private tragedy, most notably the assassinations of his two older brothers, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Ted had been particularly close to Robert; when the latter was killed in June 1968 during his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, his grief was compounded by the weight of expectation that then fell on his shoulders.

A year later, on the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, just off the Massachusetts retreat of Martha’s Vineyard. At midnight he left the party to drive Kopechne, a 28-year-old fellow guest, to catch the ferry. Kennedy, however, drove off a bridge and into a tidal creek. He escaped from the submerged car, but Kopechne drowned. Although he said he had tried to rescue her, Kennedy’s failure to report the incident for more than 10 hours and the subsequent inquest held in private led to accusations of a cover-up and to public outrage that Kennedy had appeared to put his political career ahead of a young woman’s life. The controversy was complicated by what was viewed as favouritism in Kennedy’s legal treatment: after pleading guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident, he received a two-month suspended sentence and his driver’s license was suspended for a year. In April 1970 a grand jury declined to indict Kennedy on further charges.

Kennedy’s career never completely recovered from Chappaquiddick, though it was less damaging than Kennedy’s detractors might have hoped. Although he remained a member of the U.S. Senate until his death, in 2009, and came to be seen as a conscientious and effective legislator—fellow Senator John McCain said of him, “He remains the single most effective member of the Senate if you want to get results”—Kennedy had to abandon any serious aspirations to the presidency of the United States.