Hey Gov....
And don't forget,
The pics link directly to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General!
Posted on 04/17/2007 9:58:26 AM PDT by Omega Man II
Taking a closer look at governor’s crash
04/17/2007
There seems to have been some spinning going on regarding the crash that came perilously close to costing Gov. Jon Corzine his life.And we aren’t talking about the spin of vehicles involved in that horrendous crash on the Parkway.
We’re talking about the spin-- spin as in weasel-worded official accounts -- describing the accident.
At first, State Police brass sought to shift the blame for the accident on the driver of a red pickup truck, who was initially described as causing the crash with his erratic driving and then fleeing the scene.
But subsequent official accounts began to retreat from that blame-shifting scenario when the pickup truck driver, a lowly Atlantic City casino employee, was located.No charges were immediately filed against him.
The 20-year-old pickup truck driver’s story reportedly is he pulled off the roadway upon seeing emergency lights flashingon the governor’s two-vehicle entourage coming up behind him.
The somewhat revised official story that’s now being disseminated is that the young man momentarily lost control of his vehicle and skidded back onto the roadway.Another oncoming vehicle swerved to avoid the pickup and forced the SUV in which the governor was riding into the guardrail.The pickup truck driver is now said to have been unaware he had any role in the crash.
And so it would appear that the triggeringevent in this accident was the questionable use of emergency lights by the governor’s vehicular entourage-- that and the likely speed of the entourage.
Let us interject at this point that we wish the governor a speedy and complete recovery from the surely excruciatingly painful injuries he is suffering. But sympathy for the governor’s physical plight should not sweep aside legitimate questions about this accident.
The governor’s grandly titled state trooper "Executive Protection Service" in this case was serving as a glorified chauffeur service. The governor’s entourage was racing to get from Atlantic City to Princeton where Corzine was to host a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team.That was not by any stretch of imagination an "emergency."
State Police brass were quoted as saying that the emergency lights were turned on as a "safety" measure.But that sounds like a sample of the spin we mentioned at the outset.
We certainly are not experts in reconstructing accident scenarios.But neither were we born yesterday.From the damage to the governor’s SUV, we’d hazard the speculation it was traveling at a high rate of speed-- a speed that evidently precluded defensive driving measures even with a trained state trooper at the wheel.
We’d hazard the speculation that there was a bit of official haughtiness involved in this crash, with the governorspeeding along in the left lane with emergency flashers on, declaring, in effect, to all other traffic, "Out of our way, make room, peasants!"
This likely scenario, plus the governor’s reported failure to have his seat belt buckled-- as state law mandates-- suggests a bit of reckless, irresponsible bravado on the governor’s part such as so often manifests itself among teen motorists with tragic results. The governor’s entourage not only endangered itselfbut others using what is, after all, a public highway, not Gov. Crozine’s personal roadway.
It seems to us a governor has some obligation, by virtue of the position of public responsibility he holds, to exercise a level of personal caution in his life.If he has an urgeto live dangerously, whether it be to go skydiving or enter a demolition derby-- or tospurn the use of a seatbelt--he should quit his public job and indulge this urge on his own time and dime.
Personally, I want to know what the governor needs with a motorcade in the first place.
State Police brass were quoted as saying that the emergency lights were turned on as a “safety” measure.But that sounds like a sample of the spin we mentioned at the outset.
Let one of the lowly folk use the same “safety measure”
Lights and speeding to get to the Imus-Rutgers meeting?
I can only hope that, for a change, Corzine feels just a little bit like the fool that he actually is.
ping
Traffic laws are for the little people.
Because we should spare no danger, expense or common sense if there’s a chance to inject all the authority of the governor’s office into a schoolyard name-calling incident and score a few cheap political points.
Hey Gov....
And don't forget,
The pics link directly to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General!
Corzine Names Traffic Scofflaw as AG
Governor Corzine has nominated Zulima Farber as his choice for state attorney general. State Senators at Farber’s initial confirmation hearing queried her about the 12 speeding tickets she has received, and the various driver license suspensions imposed on her after failure to appear in court following some of the speeding citations.
Farber told the Senate panel she is embarrassed about her driving record and would consider counseling to remedy the situation. News reports said that former governor James McGreevey considered Farber but passed her over when the driving record issues came to light.
Farber’s nomination is a troubling sign of the low regard driving laws are accorded and the extent to which anti-social behavior at the wheel is seen as normal throughout U.S. society. While other types of crime are addressed obsessively by politicians and press, dangerous, often deadly, driving behavior is generally winked at by opinion makers (witness wide NJ editorial support for Farber) and broadly tolerated by the legal system, and the problem seems to be getting worse.
Since the Campaign has tracked traffic deaths across New Jersey, beginning in the early 1990s, we’ve seen little improvement. Statewide traffic deaths predictably exceed 730 per year. We recently called on officials across the region to find ways to apply a “broken window theory” to traffic crime (MTR #518b), where zero tolerance for basic infractions can help reduce the dangerous driving that takes such a high death and injury toll across the region. Placing a habitual speeder in the state’s top law enforcement position hardly seems the place to start.
Oh? .. That's a new one on me ... granted, I'm not neccesarily following this story.
Documentation?
I don’t know about executed, but Corzine shouldn’t spend another day in office as the governor of the state. The severity of his injuries has made it easy to overlook the fact that he was (and probably has done on a regular basis) putting the health and safety of New Jersey’s motorists at risk for nothing more than a silly episode of political posturing.
good question!
i remember meeting a woman in austin who told me she and her crazy friend slipped into a governor of texas’ motorcade, undetected by the law officials. they even stopped for refreshments, gas, and potties.
she giggled that they drove for a hundred miles or so until they got bored with it.
I’m saying that the governor shouldn’t have a motorcade for almost anything except a dire emergency. Frivolous or not.
Sounds like karma found a way to balance Corzines desire to demagogue the Imus-Rutgers situation to his personal/political benefit... John needs to find religion or at least take personal assessment of his life before the universe finds a way to make its point more forcefully.
Actually you do hear about her - an intelligent, hard-working, ambitious young black woman. And she was buckled in the back and Corzine was in the front - so wash your mind out with soap.
Mrs VS
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