BEDFORD — A rear-end collision Thursday afternoon did not keep a school board candidate from his interview for a vacant seat.

Dave Vaden of Huddleston was en route to meet with the Bedford County School Board when the crash occurred. He arrived late for the interview and left to be checked out at a hospital as soon as the board appointed him.

The board voted 5-0 to put Vaden into the Moneta District seat vacated six weeks ago by Talbot Huff, who resigned abruptly because he said he could not support hiring Doug Schuch  as the division’s next superintendent.

Chairman Gary Hostutler and Huddleston District representative David Black were absent.

Vaden, 52, a real estate agent at Smith Mountain Lake and retired Army lieutenant colonel, was the lone applicant for the office that expires at the end of the year. He said he plans to run for a full four-year term in the November election.

Vaden and his family moved to Huddleston in 2003. Most of his work related to education in the county has been through the Bedford Area Educational Foundation, where he served as executive director for two years and currently is a board member.

Vaden said board members told him his involvement with the foundation is not perceived as a conflict of interest but that their attorney will be consulted.

“If it is a conflict, I will step down from my position at the educational foundation to serve on the school board,” Vaden said.

School board members earn $4,000 compensation annually and  are eligible for the division’s health and dental insurance benefits.

Vaden holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from West Point and two master’s degrees: one in systems administration from Central Michigan University and one in engineering from Old Dominion University.

He and wife, Carmel Vaden, have two children: Samuel Vaden, 24, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Sarah Vaden, 19. Sarah Vaden was  valedictorian in Staunton River High School’s Class of 2008, and she studies aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech on a full academic scholarship.