Thomas Lifson

Carole Migden is one of the most powerful people in California, and she knows it. The lesbian activist (author of the state's original domestic partners act, "married" in a faux ceremony conducted by SF mayor Gavin Newsom) is chair of the majority Democrat caucus in the State Senate, and has held a series of extremely powerful posts in a state government that spends $100 billion a year with little press scrutiny.

State Sen. Carole Migden bounced her state-issued SUV off the concrete median on Interstate 80 and nearly ran other motorists off the freeway before slamming into the back of another vehicle last week, the California Highway Patrol and witnesses said Tuesday.

More than half a dozen motorists made emergency calls about Migden's erratic driving before the Friday accident, the CHP said. The rear-end collision in Fairfield, midway between San Francisco and Sacramento [about 25 miles from her first accident careening off the median barrier - ed.], injured a woman and her 3-year-old daughter, who were sent to the emergency room.

In a statement released by her office last week, the San Francisco Democrat said the accident happened after she took her eyes off the road while reaching for a ringing cell phone.

...two drivers who followed Migden off the interstate began berating her immediately after the accident.

"One of them said she'd run him off the road. They were pretty upset that she'd been driving so badly," Jordan said.

"She kept saying, 'You can't talk to me like that, I'm a state senator,"' he said. "She was kind of wobbly. She didn't seem alert. She was not acting normally."

"I did not see it coming. I heard no screeching brakes," the Honda's driver, Ellen Butawan of Vallejo, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

She said the impact smashed in the Honda's trunk about 3 feet.

"The tow-truck guy told me that I was lucky no one was seriously injured," said Butawan, 31. "I went to the ER with a head injury, and the left side of my face is black and blue."

Her daughter, Leila, was in a child seat and suffered chest abrasions from the restraining harness, Butawan said. Both will see doctors for follow-up visits this week.

The impact pushed Butawan's car into the vehicle stopped in front of her, a heating and air-conditioning van driven by Turlock resident Bob Jordan. Jordan, 57, was uninjured and his company vehicle received only minor damage, the CHP said.