Charlie Gerow, a Republican who announced his candidacy for governor last month, said Friday that he is cooperating with a police investigation into an accident in which a motorcyclist was killed, and that shut down the Pennsylvania Turnpike for seven hours.
In a statement through a spokesperson, Gerow said he did not cause the accident.
Pennsylvania State Police have released little information about the accident Wednesday night just before 10 p.m. on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, saying only that it involved a motorcycle and a car that a Gerow spokesperson identified as the one Gerow was driving.
The turnpike was closed for seven hours after the accident in the westbound lanes in Chester County, just west of the King of Prussia interchange, police said in a news release.
The Chester County coroner’s office identified the victim as Logan Carl Abbott, 30, of Bradford County.
It is not clear whether other vehicles were involved, whether there were any witnesses or how the accident happened. Gerow was not injured, his statement said.
Gerow, 66, runs a communications and marketing firm in Harrisburg with offices two blocks from the state Capitol, where he is a familiar face.
In the statement, Gerow said he “looks forward to the State Police completing their investigation and is confident that the investigation will confirm that he was not the cause (of) the accident."
Gerow said he was advised not discuss the matter further until the investigation is complete.
This is Gerow’s first statewide campaign after running unsuccessfully for Congress and the state Legislature in the past.
Before he announced his candidacy in June, Gerow had toured the state GOP’s event circuit for months, speaking to audiences as a potential candidate.
He is vice chairman of the American Conservative Union, a national political organization, and a rank-and-file state party committee member. He got his start in politics volunteering — and later as a paid staffer — on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan.
He is also known to Sunday morning television audiences in central Pennsylvania for appearing for more than two decades as a political commentator on “Face the State,” a public affairs show on the local CBS affiliate.
