Nancy Pelosi in Fatal Car Accident, Tests Positive for Cocaine-Fiction!

Nancy Pelosi in Fatal Car Accident, Tests Positive for Cocaine-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was in a car accident and later tested positive for cocaine.
The Truth:
A series of reports published by a self-described “satirical” website is behind false rumors that Nancy Pelosi was in a car accident and later tested positive for cocaine.
The first report appeared at OurLandoftheFree.com on August 7, 2017, under the headline, “Nancy Pelosi In Critical Condition After Head-On Car Crash.” The report says the West Los Angeles Police Department said Pelosi drank a “ridiculous” amount of wine at an event before the crash:

Sgt. Bruce Bahner says that Pelosi’s driver was sick so she decided to drive herself back to her 3.8 million dollar mansion, but with a blood alcohol content of 1.3 she didn’t get very far before she randomly accelerated, went off the road, and slammed into the side of a city bus. Pelosi was not wearing a seatbelt and flew through the windshield, slamming her head into the side of the bus. She is currently in intensive care at St. Myrtle’s Regional Hospital.

The first hint that the report is a hoax is that there’s no such thing as the “West Los Angeles Police Department.” The LAPD has a West LA Community Police Station, but it’s not an exclusive police department. The website’s “About Us” page casts further doubt by stating that there’s no guarantee that its content is based in reality, and it should be considered satirical in nature. We’ve investigated many rumors about Nancy Pelosi from fake news websites, and this appears to the latest one.
But after the initial report of Nancy Pelosi being in a car accident, the site published a series of follow-up articles. One claimed that a father of three died from injuries that he sustained in the crash. Another claimed that Pelosi tested positive for cocaine that was in her system at the time of the crash:

Currently, she is slipping in and out of consciousness at St. Ulysses General Hospital where doctors made a shocking discovery: not only was her blood alcohol content more than four times the legal limit, but the toxicology report revealed that she also had large amounts of cocaine in her system.

Like the original report, these follow-up reports are completely fabricated and shouldn’t be taken seriously.