Click it or Ticket it
Click it or Ticket Folks!
Rule #1 in elitist politics: Always blame a peon!
[sarcasm] I’m sure that Corzine was saying to his driver, before the accident, “Please slow down.” [/sarcasm]
If Johnny Boy could forgive a huge loan to his girlfriend, I am sure he could forgive/pardon his driver.
What do you bet Corzine was behind the seatbelt law. I haven’t heard yet if he got a ticket, anyone know?
http://www.nj1015.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=7058&z=1
Review Panel: Governor Crash Preventable
The April crash on the Garden State Parkway that nearly took the life of Governor Jon Corzine could have been prevented and the Trooper behind the wheel of the Governor’s SUV did violate departmental regulations. That does not mean Trooper Robert Rasinski caused the crash. These are the findings of the State Police Motor Vehicle Accident and Pursuit Review Board. Although the violations are not being specified.
State Police Superintendent Colonel Rick Fuentes has signed off on the findings in a letter sent to State Attorney General Stu Rabner that was released yesterday, he recommends that Rasinski be suspended for up to five days although the Trooper remains with the elite Executive Protection Unit which protects the Governor.
In his letter Fuentes writes, “I must conclude that Trooper Rasinski’s pre-crash driving
conduct was culpably inefficient and in violation of the division’s rules and regulations.” One aspect of the probe focused on whether Rasinski had been distracted at the time of the crash by e-mails or text messages he may have received. The panel finds Rasinski was not using a Blackberry or cell phone and that electronic communication had no role in the accident. “If substantiated, such behavior would conflict with EPU policy and training,” Fuentes says, “Extensive inquiry into this issue” — including interviews with the governor — “disclosed that no such activity took place.”
Governor Jon Corzine says he spoke Rasinski and reiterated his personal gratitude, and the gratitude of his family, for the way he controlled the SUV on April 12. He says, “I have confidence in Rob and would expect him to remain in the Executive Protection Unit…..this has been a regrettable and painful experience for all involved, and no one is more aware of that than I. A lot of mistakes were made on April 12; chief among them was my failure to wear a seatbelt.”
The Trooper union calls Rasinski actions after the Governor’s SUV was hit by another vehicle, “heroic,” and says the accident review board holds troopers to a higher standard by assuming they can prevent accidents and that the board deems most trooper accidents preventable, but is not blaming Rasinski for the crash.
Corzine was critically injured in the accident. He broke 15 bones and spent eight days on a ventilator; he continues to undergo extensive rehab on a badly broken femur and returned to the Statehouse for the first time just last month. A black box recorder showed the SUV to be traveling at 91 mph seconds before the crash. Corzine, who was riding in the front passenger’s seat, was not wearing a seat belt.
By: Kevin McArdle