If only he had managed to disappear until after the election

According to the NYT, Gary Dodds of New Hampshire "was convicted of faking his disappearance after a car crash two years ago to draw attention to his Congressional campaign." Was the car crash intentional? I'm sure a little googling could clear this up further, but I think I prefer the mystery. I mean, clearly the accident was something he could walk away from just fine considering that he, you know, walked away just fine. And yet he thought that he could believably disappear for 27 hours. In any case, this guy is clearly a go-getter. If I were in a car crash my first thought would not be "How could this further my career? Would laying low for a day or so with my feet in a bucket of cold water to simulate exposure somehow help?" This is why I will almost certainly not hold elected office. Or even fail to win an election and then go to jail like Gary. But even though it didn't work out this time, if he hadn't tried an insane, Three's-Companyesque zany plot and had lost the race, he would've always wondered what could've been if he'd just been committed enough to pretend he had spent a day nearly drowning in a river.