Madison Cawthorn, accused of rear-ending FHP car, nearly died in crash near Daytona in 2014

Disgraced former Congressman Madison Cawthorn has been accused of tailgating a vehicle and rear-ending a Florida Highway Patrol car on Monday afternoon in Collier County, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Area residents may recall that 10 years ago, long before his congressional rise and fall, he was involved in a far more serious accident that left him partially paralyzed. Cawthorn was a passenger in that crash on Interstate 4 near DeLand.

Cawthorn, a pro-Trump Republican was elected to North Carolina's 11th Congressional District in 2020. He lost in a 2022 primary and has since moved to Cape Coral on the Gulf Coast of southwest Florida.

Lt. Gregory Bueno, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, confirmed in an email Tuesday that a 2021 Mercedes rear-ended a patrol car, a Dodge Charger, at 4:30 p.m. on Interstate 75 in Collier County. He did not name the driver and said a report won't be available for about 10 days, but said the Mercedes was driven by a 28-year-old male from Cape Coral.

Cawthorn is 28 and moved to Cape Coral in 2022, according to the Asheville Times Citizen.

The FHP trooper sustained minor injuries and was taken to an area hospital, Bueno said. The driver of the Mercedes was cited for a violation of Florida's Move Over Law, which requires motorists to move over a lane when they are approaching a law enforcement vehicle parked on the shoulder of a highway.

Cawthorn's 2014 crash near DeLand

As an 18-year-old high school senior, Cawthorn was a passenger in a car driven by his high school friend, Bradley Ledford. The car crashed into a construction barrier and erupted in flames. Ledford pulled Cawthorn from the car, according to a 2015 News-Journal story. Cawthorn was flown to Halifax Health Medical Center.

Cawthorn needed multiple surgeries for his spine, pelvis, ankle, stomach and appendix, his mother Priscilla Cawthorn told the News-Journal at the time. After his five-week stay in Halifax, he moved to a rehab center in Atlanta.

The Cawthorns revisited Halifax Health for a 30-year celebration of the hospital's Level II trauma center.

“I’m just so grateful there was a place that was able to save my life,” Cawthorn told The News-Journal at the time.

First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach made a condominium available for Cawthorn's parents, while church members helped the family with laundry and grocery shopping. The Daytona Beach Chick-fil-A, a franchise where Cawthorn had worked as a teenager in North Carolina, provided free meals.

“I always felt like I belonged here,” Cawthorn told the newspaper in 2015.

Predicted his future

The 19-year-old Cawthorn was not shy when talking about his career plans. He had already begun working as a liaison for U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, who later became President Donald Trump's chief of staff.

"I absolutely will run for Congress," he said.

In 2020, he did that, becoming the youngest Republican member of the 117th Congress. He had just turned 25, the minimum age required by the Constitution to serve in the House of Representatives.

However, a string of controversies contributed to his 2022 Republican primary defeat at the hands of Chuck Edwards.

Cawthorn pleaded guilty to attempting to carry a loaded gun through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport. He said he had been invited to orgies where cocaine was being used, an allegation then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said was not backed up by evidence. And the House Ethics committee fined him for improperly promoting a cryptocurrency, Let's Go Brandon, in which he had a financial interest.

And he has a history of legal run-ins related to driving. In 2022, he was charged with driving with a revoked license. He faced the same charge in 2017, but it was dismissed a year later, according to the Asheville Times Citizen, which also reported he had two speeding tickets while he was in Congress.

In 2022, Cawthorn dropped a civil lawsuit he had filed against his friend, Ledford, alleging negligence during the 2014 accident.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Reports: Madison Cawthorn rear-ended Florida Highway Patrol vehicle