Lance Armstrong allegedly crashed into 2 vehicles and left the scene, and his girlfriend tried to take the blame
Disgraced American sports icon Lance Armstrong allegedly crashed into two parked vehicles in Colorado on Dec. 29 and left the scene, with his girlfriend initially telling police that she had been behind the wheel, according to an Aspen police report obtained by Business Insider.
The Aspen Daily News first reported the news, saying that Armstrong’s girlfriend, Anna Hansen, also allegedly lied about whether Armstrong had been drinking.
She was cited by Aspen police for failing to report the accident and exceeding safe speed for conditions before those tickets were transferred to Armstrong on Jan. 12.
According to the police report, the couple had attended a party at the Aspen Art Museum on the evening of Dec. 29. Hansen had initially told police that she’d lost control of the GMC Yukon that she and Armstrong were driving home in and struck two parked cars in the West End neighborhood.
According to the report, Hansen and Armstrong took what appeared to be the long way home. One of the officers wrote:
I asked Hansen why she was driving back to her house on the 100 block of West Francis when she lives in the 900 block west. I explained it would be more efficient and quicker to drive down Main Street to the ‘S’ curves then to her house. Hansen said she always goes through the west end to their home. I also asked her why she didn’t wait until the police arrived on scene to make a report. Hansen said it didn’t occur to her as she didn’t think she needed to wait for the police. I explained to her that anytime you get into an accident you need to have the police involved. She said she didn’t know that. I told Hansen that it’s my experience that when people cut through the west end of town and don’t wait around for police they’re typically intoxicated. She said she didn’t have anything to drink, that’s why she was driving.
According to the report, the homeowner whose house Hansen went to right after the incident told 911:
“A woman, well-dressed, 30ish, blond woman came running around the corner in her high heels in six inches of packed snow which was pretty impressive; she ran directly to us and said ‘We’re so sorry, we came around the corner and slipped on the ice and we hit your cars, we’re so sorry, we’ll pay for everything.'”
Detective Rick Magnuson wrote in his report that a valet at the museum said he had seen Armstrong getting into the driver’s seat and Hansen getting in the passenger side.
The officer handling the case also wrote in his report:
I asked Hansen if Armstrong asked her to take the blame for the accident once they got home. She replied, “No, that was a joint decision and um, you know we’ve had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and honestly, I’ve got teenagers, I just wanted to protect my family because I thought, ‘Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it’s not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story.'”
I asked Hansen if Armstrong was intoxicated when he drove home from the St. Regis as she originally told me. Hansen replied, “He was not intoxicated, and that was um, you know, I’m sorry I lied to you that morning but I was trying to make it sound like well I was driving because that was just, I don’t know, I’m not in the habit of lying in general and especially not to police officers so, I don’t know I was just trying to make something up at that time.”
Earlier on the day of the incident, Armstrong tweeted that it was snowing in Aspen and that he was working out next to former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright:
Armstrong has hired Pamela Mackey, the same lawyer who represented Kobe Bryant.
The US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles in October 2012, and he confessed to Oprah Winfrey to having used banned substances in January 2013.
In its “Reasoned Decision,” USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that his US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, “ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
In a BBC interview that aired last week, Armstrong was asked, “When it comes to the doping, would you do it again?”
“If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I’d probably do it again,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong is due in court March 17.
Mark Higgins, Armstrong’s publicist, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
