Vice president’s SUV was partially ‘airborne’ during 2022 motorcade accident, records show

The back end of the vehicle carrying Vice President Kamala Harris “became momentarily airborne” after it struck a high curb during a 2022 motorcade accident in Washington, D.C., that initially was misreported to top Secret Service officials as “a mechanical failure,” records recently released to NBC News show.

Despite the accident, the special agent who was driving Harris’ vehicle, a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban, was granted a waiver from taking a defensive driving training course typically required of Secret Service employees involved in accidents with official vehicles, the records show.

In a memorandum explaining the decision to grant the agent an exception, the special agent in charge of the agency’s Vice Presidential Protective Division wrote that the accident occurred only after the publicly unidentified driver moved the vehicle into an open traffic lane “to be in the proper motorcade alignment.”

“As soon as she maneuvered to the right, the lane ended and immediately became a high curb,” according to the memo by the official, whose name is redacted. “The limo sustained damage to the right rear of the vehicle. No other property damage was incurred.”

The new details about the vehicle becoming partially airborne, as well as the training requirement waiver granted to the driver, are in 26 pages of documents about the accident on Oct. 3, 2022, that the Secret Service recently released to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Along with the memo about the waiver, the records include internal agency emails sharing media reports about the accident and an official accident report that includes photographs of damage to the vehicle's right rear quarter panel.

Harris, who was not injured, was transferred to