johnnymk

As usual, certain people are above the law.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...1/70417029/-1/

TRENTON -- The sport-utility vehicle carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine when it crashed last week was traveling 91 mph, the State Police said this afternoon.

Corzine remains in critical but stable condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden after sustaining several critical injuries during last Thursday's crash on the Garden State Parkway in Atlantic County.

Data retrieved from the black box in Corzine's vehicle showed speeds of 91 mph five seconds before impact with the guard rail, and 30 mph when the Chevrolet Suburban crashed into the guard rail.

Police initially said speed was not a factor.

"Traffic was flowing and the speed is not considered to be a contributing circumstance," State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said last Thursday hours after the crash. "The accident investigation remains active, and more information will be made available at a later time."

Fuentes scheduled a conference call with reporters for 4:30 p.m.

He has asked a review panel to examine whether the crash was preventable and if Corzine's driver, Trooper Robert Rasinski, should be disciplined.

Police were expected to finish investigating early this week, but that timetable could be slowed due to the fact that Corzine is still unable to speak due to breathing tubes in his throat.

A State Police spokesman said Monday that Rasinski had not yet been interviewed, but another spokesman said today that he was interviewed over the weekend.

Corzine was returning from Atlantic City to Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton Township, for a meeting between between fired radio personality Don Imus and the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

As the two-car motorcade headed north -- with emergency lights on -- Kenneth Potts, 20, of Little Egg Harbor pulled to the shoulder to let the vehicles pass. But Potts told police he hit a soft spot on the shoulder and veered his car left back onto the Parkway.

A second vehicle, a white pickup driven by John M. Carrino Jr., 24, of Glenwood, also veered left to avoid collision, but wound up striking Corzine's vehicle, which then crashed into a guard rail.

Corzine, who apparently was not wearing a seat belt, sustained a litany of injuries, but doctors Monday said they were pleased with his recovery and planned to lessen his sedation and begin considering whether to take him off the ventilator

cheapie

plus, as noted in the article, he wasn't wearing a seat belt. and the cop that was driving didn't say anything to him about it. that's why he got hurt so badly. because he was thrown from the back seat into the front.

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renovation

here in michigan only adults in the front seat have to wear seat belts !
also why dont school bus all have have seat belts ? a lot of states dont require them for the students.

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Jeffbx

Yup. Despite the fact that his driver was speeding, I'd say 99% of the reason he's in the hospital is because he was too stupid to put on his seatbelt. If it were on he probably would have walked away & this story would have been a tiny blip.

cheapie

because the current design of school bus seats is actually quite safe. won't go into it here but i work in the industry and it's not nearly as simple as just putting seat belts in.

johnnymk

I worked on specs for school busses for the State of New Jersey 30 years ago. I was surprised to see how the Federal government legislated the integrity of school busses to make them unusually safe.

If you look at the number of kids injured or killed in school busses, it is very small.

Seatbelts in busses have to be monitored constantly. Who would be responsible for this? It is a very thorny issue.

Houdini

Yep. Speed is not always that big of a factor in lethality above certain speeds. Let me rephrase that...there is a level of diminishing returns w/respect to lethality as speed increases. People crash and live on autobahns a lot at high speeds.

And he hit the guardrail going 30? Someone must have really hit the brakes for an SUV to slow from 90-30 in five seconds. Sure, my car could do it in 3, but we're tlaking about an SUV here. So he was likely thrown forward during braking, and then smashed at 30 w/o a seatbelt.

So I agree...the seatbelt meant a lot more than the speed.

Napoleon54

Sure, I agree completely. But what I find revolting is the hypocracy illustrated by the statements quoted in the article. "Speed was not a factor", etc, blah blah blah. The whole rationale for issuing speeding tickets is supposed to be that speed --> accidents, speed --> deaths. That's the coverstory they use for collecting revenue from fines. Supposedly it's not a revenue generator, it's for public safety. But when a cop crashes, all of the sudden it's acceptible for him to have been speeding. Such a blatant double standard, what a load of BS. Lying hypocrite garbage.

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kgsilvas

Seems like the officer driving is going to get hosed in this deal. He can't politically force the Gov to wear his seatbelt, yet the officer will get dinged by his agency for it. The Gov was running late, so the driver was probably under pressure to arrive on time and was therefore speeding. Sure the Gov got hurt, but the officer will most likely lose his job. Sucks!

Jeffbx

I bet he doesn't lose his job, but he sure better get a speeding ticket!!

thresher

Did anyone get a Carl Hiaasen deja vu with this whole thing other than me?

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LPMiller

well, it's not like the govenor can't issue a pardon, once he heals up.

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