Kerry Kennedy on Ambien During Car Crash

Kerry Kennedy had the sedative Ambien in her system when she crashed her car last week in Westchester and tried to leave the scene, according to court documents filed yesterday. Toxicology tests found zolpidem, the generic name for the sedative Ambien, in a blood sample taken the day Kennedy swerved her Lexus across a highway and smashed into a tractor-trailer, Newsday reports.

Kennedy, ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and daughter of Bobby Kennedy, had claimed at a press conference after the accident that she was suffering from "a complex partial seizure" when the crash occurred. She also told officers on the scene, however, that she may have taken an Ambien pill by mistake. "It now appears that my first instinct was correct," Kennedy said in a statement late yesterday, reports AP. She pleaded not guilty last month to a charge of driving while drug impaired. She's due back in court next month. (More Westchester stories.)