What happened 18 December 1972AD

On December 18, 1972, a few weeks after the election, Biden's wife and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia Biden's station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer truck as she pulled out from an intersection. Biden's sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds, and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries. Doctors soon said both would make full recoveries. Biden considered resigning to care for them, but was persuaded not to by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. In later years, Biden commented that the truck driver had been drinking alcohol before the collision, but these allegations have been denied by the driver's family and were never substantiated by the police.