On a late August evening in New Hampshire, an 81-year-old man who once commanded the largest city in America was struck from behind on an interstate highway, his body absorbing the kind of sudden violence that reminds us how little our former stations protect us from ordinary misfortune. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and once celebrated as a symbol of resilience after September 11, sustained a fractured vertebra and multiple injuries when a teenager's Honda collided with his rented SUV on I-93. The dashcam footage, now released by state police, captures not a figure of history but si
Dashcam footage captures moment Rudy Giuliani's car struck from behind on I-93
Rudy Giuliani, 81, sustained a fractured thoracic vertebra, multiple lacerations, contusions, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg; all three parties involved received non-life-threatening injuries.
A car accident won't slow him down, his security chief said—but the legal reckoning already has.
Mark
Why release the dashcam footage now, months after the accident?
Mimi
The New Hampshire State Police released it as part of their standard documentation of the incident. It's public record, and media outlets requested it.
Luke
But we should note—the footage doesn't actually show much. We hear the collision, we see the aftermath. It doesn't tell us how fast either car was going, or whether Kemp was distracted. The police haven't said whether she was cited or charged.
Mark
What about the domestic violence call an hour before? That seems connected somehow.
Mimi
It does seem like an odd coincidence, but police have been clear that Kemp wasn't involved in that. Giuliani and Goodman stopped to help a woman, called troopers, and then an hour later got hit.
Luke
Right, and Giuliani's own account of that first encounter is secondhand—he's telling us what he thinks a trooper implied. We don't have the trooper's statement or the woman's account. We're working from Giuliani's interpretation.
Mark
How serious were his injuries?
Mimi
A fractured thoracic vertebra is significant—that's the middle spine. He also had lacerations, contusions, and injuries to his arm and leg. But he was released from the hospital and mobile enough to attend a public event in a wheelchair within two weeks.
Luke
All three parties had non-life-threatening injuries, which is the key fact. Serious enough to hospitalize, not serious enough to be life-altering, at least not from this accident alone.
Mark
Is there any sense of what happens next?
Mimi
Giuliani continues recovering. There's no indication of ongoing legal action related to the crash itself.
Luke
The real story isn't the accident—it's the context. Giuliani's facing bankruptcy, massive judgments, lost his law license. A car accident is a moment in a much longer collapse.
Le Pouls
- The collision was violent enough to send the striking vehicle spinning across the median, smoke rising from its hood, while Giuliani absorbed injuries that would have felled many men his age.
- The accident arrived freighted with strange context — just an hour earlier, Giuliani and his spokesman had stopped on the same highway to assist a woman claiming to flee domestic violence, a detail that adds an almost theatrical quality to the evening's events.
- State police dashcam footage, now public, shows both vehicles pulled over and occupants receiving care, their faces blurred — a rare moment of anonymity for a man who has rarely been out of the public eye.
- Within two weeks, Giuliani appeared at a 9/11 memorial in a wheelchair and chest brace, his team framing his survival as consistent with a life already marked by endurance under pressure.
- The crash lands as a single physical disruption within a far larger legal storm — bankruptcy proceedings, a $148 million defamation judgment, and the loss of his law license form the deeper wreckage surrounding him.
On a late August evening in New Hampshire, an 81-year-old man who once commanded the largest city in America was struck from behind on an interstate highway, his body absorbing the kind of sudden violence that reminds us how little our former stations protect us from ordinary misfortune. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and once celebrated as a symbol of resilience after September 11, sustained a fractured vertebra and multiple injuries when a teenager's Honda collided with his rented SUV on I-93. The dashcam footage, now released by state police, captures not a figure of history but simply a man in a car — one whose physical recovery has outpaced, at least for the moment, the slower unraveling of his legal and public life.
On the evening of August 30, on Interstate 93 north of Manchester, New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani was riding as a passenger in a rented Ford Bronco driven by his spokesman Ted Goodman when a Honda HR-V operated by 19-year-old Lauren Kemp struck them from behind. The impact was severe enough to send Kemp's vehicle spinning across the grassy median, smoke rising from its hood. New Hampshire State Police have released dashcam footage of the moment, recorded by a patrol vehicle parked nearby — the sound of the crash, then both cars on the shoulder, occupants receiving medical attention with faces blurred.
Giuliani, 81, left the scene with a fractured thoracic vertebra, lacerations, contusions, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg. Goodman and Kemp sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and all three were taken to the hospital. Within two weeks, Giuliani attended a 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, arriving in a wheelchair and chest brace.
The accident came roughly an hour after an unusual episode on the same highway. Giuliani and Goodman had been flagged down by a woman claiming to be fleeing domestic violence. His head of security, Michael Ragusa, said the two men called state police just after 9 p.m. and waited until troopers arrived. Kemp has not been connected to that earlier encounter, and no charges have been filed related to the crash. On his podcast, Giuliani offered his own account of the domestic violence stop, suggesting the woman may not have been the victim she claimed — though those details remain unverified.
The accident is, in one sense, a straightforward road incident. In another, it is a footnote in a much larger story. Giuliani, once mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001 and later Donald Trump's personal attorney, has spent recent years navigating the legal fallout from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He lost his law license, was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of vote fraud, declared bankruptcy, and was most recently ordered to pay an additional $1.36 million in legal fees. The car on I-93 was just one more thing that hit him.
On the evening of August 30, on Interstate 93 just north of Manchester, New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani's rented Ford Bronco was struck from behind. The 81-year-old former New York City mayor was a passenger; his spokesman Ted Goodman was driving. The other vehicle, a Honda HR-V operated by 19-year-old Lauren Kemp, collided with them hard enough to spin across the road's grassy median, smoke rising from under its hood. New Hampshire State Police have now released dashcam footage of the moment of impact—the sound of the collision captured by a police vehicle parked on the shoulder near an ambulance, followed by images of both cars pulled over, their occupants receiving medical attention with faces blurred.
Giuliani left the scene with a fractured thoracic vertebra, multiple lacerations and contusions, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg. Goodman and Kemp sustained injuries classified as non-life-threatening. All three were transported to the hospital. Within two weeks, Giuliani had recovered enough to attend a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, though he required a wheelchair and chest brace to do so.
The accident occurred roughly an hour after an unusual encounter on the same stretch of highway. Traveling southbound near Exit 9N, Giuliani and Goodman were flagged down by a woman who claimed to be fleeing domestic violence. According to Michael Ragusa, Giuliani's head of security, the two men called state police just after 9 p.m. and remained at the scene until troopers arrived to assist her. Kemp has not been connected to that earlier incident, and no charges have been filed related to the crash itself.
On his podcast, America's Mayor Live, Giuliani offered his own account of the domestic violence encounter, noting that the woman had not appeared injured, panicked, or overwhelmed by her circumstances. He suggested that a state trooper had implied to him and Goodman that she might have been the aggressor in her relationship rather than the victim. These details remain unverified by independent sources and reflect only Giuliani's recollection of what officers may have communicated.
Ragusa, in a statement to The Independent, characterized Giuliani's injuries with levity, invoking his client's survival of the September 11 attacks and suggesting that a car accident would not impede his recovery or his work. The comment underscores Giuliani's public persona even as his circumstances have shifted dramatically in recent years.
Giuliani served as New York City mayor from 1994 to 2001 and later became Donald Trump's personal attorney during the president's first term. He has spent the past several years embroiled in legal consequences stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He lost his New York law license, faced defamation lawsuits, and was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers whom he had falsely accused of vote tampering. That judgment prompted him to declare bankruptcy. Most recently, he was ordered to pay an additional $1.36 million in legal fees accumulated during investigations into Trump's election loss. The car accident, while physically injurious, represents only one thread in a much larger unraveling.
Citations marquantes
This is a man who survived 9/11 – so a little car accident won't be slowing him down. He is eager to return to business and continue fighting for this country.— Michael Ragusa, Giuliani's head of security
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Politics & Governance