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OTTAWA — Senator Romeo Dallaire says he nodded off at the wheel of his car and crashed into a traffic barrier on Parliament Hill today.

The retired general, 67, says the news last week of three suicides of Canadian soldiers, coupled with the coming 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, have left him unable to sleep, even with medication.

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He says he simply did not monitor his fatigue level and feel asleep at the wheel.

Alcohol, which Dallaire struggled with while dealing with post-traumatic stress from the ill-fated Rwanda mission in 1994, was not a factor in the accident. Dallaire has not had a drink in 14 years, a source told the Ottawa Citizen.

Dallaire commanded the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda which could not stave off the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in 1994.

He suffered debilitating psychological problems afterward and eventually retired from the military.

“I take pills to avoid having nightmares,” he said Tuesday.

He was named to the Senate by Paul Martin in 2005.

Dallaire apologized to his fellow senators for his car accident, saying he was grateful no one was injured.

“I simply ran out of steam and fell asleep and crashed my car,” he said.