...to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, badly injured yesterday in an automobile accident on the Garden State Parkway:
Doctor Steven Ross says Corzine is stable, and that he could be removed from a ventilator within the next few days. He's still heavily sedated, because the pain from his chest injuries is making it difficult to breathe. The crash broke six ribs, as well as a leg, a vertebra and the governor's sternum. Authorities are looking for a pickup driver who's believed to have caused the crash.
State Senator Cody will be standing in as acting Governor until Corzine recovers; he did an admirable job of holding down the fort (in a centrist manner!) while filling in for the disgraced Jim McGreevy.
Sounds like Corzine is quite banged up and lucky to be alive. We wish him a speedy recovery.
UPDATE 4/14: From today's New York Post:
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine wasn't wearing a seat belt when he was badly injured in a highway crash - violating a law that the Garden State spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to promote.
The governor's chief of staff said yesterday it was unclear whether his security detail asked him to buckle up. "I don't want to speak to what the job of the state trooper would be, but those of you who know Governor Corzine know he's not always amenable to suggestion," Tom Shea said. "So I'm not sure that might have made all the difference anyway.
"If he was not, he certainly should have been," wearing his seat belt, Shea said. "And we would encourage the State Police to issue a citation." [yea, right! - ed.]
So if you are "not amenable to suggestion", you are free to disobey the law. Will that work the next time a quota-hungry Jersey cop pulls me over?
More, on the editorial page:
The question folks must be asking today: Why was the governor - sitting in the front passenger seat - not wearing his seat belt?
Doing so is not just a matter of safety - in New Jersey, it's a matter of law.
Indeed, the Garden State has one of the strictest seat-belt laws in the country.
And the state seems to take enforcement seriously: In 2000, the Legislature toughened the statute to enable cops to pull over violators even if failure to buckle-up was their only offense.
Previously, tickets could only be issued in the event of another violation.
I'm surprised the Post still doesn't get it....In New Jersey, laws do not apply to the privileged political class, just like rudimentary economics do not apply to state employees. State laws are constructed for, and designed to harrass and punish, the private-sector middle class.
Watch the politicians lecture us now on the importance of wearing seat belts - and reminding us that it's the law - and wait for the next one to get busted (and hopefully, not killed) for ignoring it....
Word up! to that, I say, and not to make any light of his suffering (which I sincerely wouldn't think of), but I think I read in one of the stories posted somewhere that he would be the third Jersey governor to have broken a leg (amongst other things, in his case).
ReplyDeleteWhat I wanted to point out, and what so amused me, was in naming Christine Whitman, who broke her leg skiing, the story also pointed out that McGreevey also broke his femur, by falling on the beach in Cape May, while jogging.
Uhhh.....
Not to be hateful, or discriminatory, or prejudiced in any way, but really, is that not the gayest way for one to break one's leg? On the sand in Cape May jogging? Sorry, but that cracked me up.
Refuah shleimah to Jon Corzine, because I know how anxious all you Jerseyans/Jerseyites (sp?) are for him to get back to work.
Maybe if he tripped and fell while going antiquing in Flemington?
ReplyDeleteDangerous ground, bro - I am waiting for the psychos at Blue Jersey to come after you for kickin' our billionaire governor while he's down.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, your analysis regarding the flouting of the laws in spot-on!