Laura Bush discusses fatal crash

NEW YORK, April 28 (UPI) -- Former first lady Laura Bush, in a new book, goes into detail publicly about her involvement as a teen in a fatal car crash in Texas, The New York Times said.

The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of Bush's book, "Spoken from the Heart," which is scheduled to be released late next month.

The former first lady also discusses politics, criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for calling former President George W. Bush "an incompetent leader" and finding fault with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for calling the former president a "loser" and a "liar," the Times said.

"The comments were uncalled for and graceless," Laura Bush writes. "While a president's political opponents, as well as his supporters, are entitled to make what they see as legitimate criticisms, and while our national debates should be spirited, these particular worlds revealed the petty and parochial nature of some who serve in Congress."

The book includes details of the 1963 car crash in which Laura Bush, 17 at the time, ran a stop sign and collided with a car driven by a popular student at her school, Mike Douglas, killing him.

"I was praying that the person in the other car was alive," she wrote. "In my mind, I was calling 'Please, God. Please, God. Please, God,' over and over and over again."

The former first lady said she lost her faith "for many, many years" following the crash.

"It was the first time that I had prayed to God for something, begged him for something, not the simple childhood wishing on a star but humbly begging for another human life," she wrote. "And it was as if no one heard."