He leaves the scene of the accident and his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne dead. Drama. 12 Images Sen. Kennedy and wife Joan at the Edgartown courthouse. The following few hours and days determine his political future. Kennedy, who denied having an intimate relationship with Kopechne, said he had been giving her a ride from the party they had attended so she could catch a ferry. According to an account given by Kennedy in a televised speech carried nationwide a week after the accident, the party went on until the early hours. The party was a reunion for campaign workers from Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Mary Jo Kopechne, shown in an undated photo. Hosting a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Kennedy is at the wheel of a car which plunges off a small bridge. Kopechne, one of the campaign aides, wanted to go back to Martha’s Vineyard, where the group was staying. Chappaquiddick (titled The Senator in the UK) is a 2017 American drama film directed by John Curran, and written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan.The film stars Jason Clarke as Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne, with Ed Helms, Bruce Dern, Jim Gaffigan, Clancy Brown, and Olivia Thirlby in supporting roles. Police stand with the press and spectators in front of Dukes County Courthouse, in Edgartown, Mass., as they wait for the inquest report into the death of Kopechne. Tourists pause outside the Martha’s Vineyard house where the party attended by Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne was held July 18, 1969. This programme is not currently available on BBC iPlayer Kennedy volunteered to drive her to the ferry. Accident in affluent Martha’s Vineyard may have changed the course of US history News > World > Americas Chappaquiddick 50 years on: The car crash that forever tarnished Ted Kennedy. He leaves the scene of the accident and his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne dead. At the time of the accident, Kennedy and Kopechne had been on Chappaquiddick Island for a reunion weekend for people who had worked an Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. Kopechne was among those workers. Kennedy and wife Joan leave a chartered plane on Martha’s Vineyard on their way to the inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Hosting a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Kennedy is at the wheel of a car which plunges off a small bridge. Kennedy walks into the Senate wing on his first day back at the Capitol after the July 18 accident. As Kennedy approached the road leading to the ferry that connects Chappaquiddick Island with Martha’s Vineyard, he made a wrong turn. A ferry with a car on board crosses from Edgartown, Mass., to Chappaquiddick Island. The Chappaquiddick incident was a car crash that happened at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, on Friday, July 18, 1969. When presidential hopeful Edward Kennedy leaves the scene of a fatal car accident, the following few days determine his political future.In July 1969, as the entire world is enthralled by the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, presidential hopeful Senator Edward Kennedy is attending a regatta at Martha's vineyard. 50 Years After The Kennedy Accident In Chappaquiddick It will be 50 years ago on Thursday that tragedy struck Chappaquiddick, a small island that's part of Martha’s Vineyard. The accident was caused by Senator Ted Kennedy's drunk driving, and resulted in the death of his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped inside the vehicle.. A ferry with a car on board crosses from Edgartown, Mass., to Chappaquiddick Island.