Vice President Al Gore’s teenage son, whose near-death in a car accident as a child devastated his family, was busted for speeding in North Carolina two days before the start of the Democratic National Convention.
Albert Gore III, 17, was charged with reckless driving Aug. 12 after North Carolina state cops clocked his Oldsmobile at 97 mph in a 55-mph zone, police said.
The teenager was driving on a long stretch of state highway in a rural area just south of Virginia, said Sgt. Robert Boyes of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
“He said he was on his way back to Washington and he was in a hurry,” Boyes said.
A trooper driving in the opposite direction clocked the car on the radar, and then turned around to pull Gore over.
Police said there were no drugs or alcohol involved in the incident, and the teen was completely cooperative. A magistrate released him on a $100 bond and set a mandatory court date for Sept. 13.
The arrest happened just before the Gore family gathered in Los Angeles, where the vice president was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate at the convention. “The Gores are dealing with this as a family matter,” said Camille Johnston, a spokeswoman for Tipper Gore.
The Gores are said to be very protective of their only son.
In 1986, the then 6-year-old youngster nearly died when he was struck by speeding car.
“I watched in horror as he flew through the air, scraped along the pavement and then lay still,” Mrs. Gore wrote in her book, “Picture This, A Visual Diary.”
His father applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until the ambulance arrived, and the youngster had to endure several surgeries to heal internal injuries.
The vice president said the episode inspired him to write “Earth in the Balance” – but it threw Tipper Gore into a clinical depression. She has said she sought and received counseling and medication in the wake of her son’s accident.
She recently took time out from campaigning for her husband to nurse her son after he injured his ankle while playing linebacker on the football team at Sidwell Friends HS.
The young man, who lives at home with his parents, is entering his senior year this fall.
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