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NJ Governor in Critical Condition After Crash

by Brian A Kennedy | April 13, 2007 at 05:51 am

899 views | 0 Recommendations | 6 comments

New Jersey Governor John Corzine is in critical condition after his motorcade was hit by a pickup truck driver on the turnpike and his SUV smashed into a guardrail. He has several broken limbs but is expected to recover. Bizarrely, he was traveling to Princeton to moderate a meeting between shock-jock Don Imus and the Rutgers womens' basketball team the DJ insulted.

UPDATE: Contrary to state law, Corzine wasn't wearing his seatbelt!

Corzine was in the front passenger's seat of a sport utility vehicle driven by Trooper Robert Rasinski. A white pickup truck driving nearby swerved to avoid a red pickup truck that had moved onto the highway from the shoulder, State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said.

The white pickup hit the passenger side of the SUV, sending it skidding into a guardrail. The red pickup left the scene. Authorities were still searching for the red pickup and its driver on Friday.

Fuentes said it was unclear whether the governor was wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash. State law requires front-seat occupants to wear seat belts.

Troopers in a vehicle following Corzine's administered first aid and called for help. Corzine, Rasinski and a gubernatorial aide were flown by helicopter to the hospital.

Doctors said when Corzine arrived at the hospital, he was conscious but had several injuries: a femur bone broken in two places that had lacerated his skin, a broken sternum, six broken ribs on each side, a head laceration and a minor fracture on a lower vertebra. Rasinski had minor injuries and the aide was not hurt.

The governor was moved to the hospital's trauma intensive care unit after surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition early Friday. He was sedated and receiving pain medication.

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lesliepear

at 07:18 on April 13th, 2007

I'm flattered you found my photo.

It's actually a good one of him, not so good of my son and I!

Oceanpeg

at 11:13 on April 13th, 2007

I was surprised that you had found my photo of NJ Governor Jon Corzine on Flickr. I just uploaded one of my photos of him there earlier in the day, several hours before his auto accident on the Garden State Parkway. Actually uploaded that photo there for the NJ Alphabet game on the NJ Flicker photostream site. Sad that Corzine wasn't wearing his seat belt. His injuries might not have been so serious if he had worn his seat belt.

chaz

at 17:22 on April 13th, 2007

Look at the carnage that using foul language causes, Imus is now Guilty of assault , since in the commission of his crime, the Governor was injured.

Yes the Governor was involved in settling the demands of the Criminal Imus. Imus was demanding acceptance of an apology and return of millions in potential revenues.

Yousee,it'sallfununtillsomeonegetspokedintheeye.

Oceanpeg

at 18:46 on April 18th, 2007

You can't put all of the blame on Imus (whom I'm definitely not a fan of, under any circumstances, in past or present) for our NJ Governor Corzine's injuries because the Governor wasn't wearing his seat belt, plus his driver was speeding, like 91 MPH with the Garden State Parkway speed limit being 65 MPH. Two NJ laws broken here.... They found the red pickup truck, too, and, the driver of same didn't receive any tickets or moving violations or the like, either. Just an unfortunate thing that happened to Governor Corzine. He was lucky that he wasn't killed in the accident, and lucky to be alive. It will be a long, long recovery for him from the injuries that he received from the accident.

chaz

at 20:13 on April 18th, 2007

Thank goodness he'll make it, Imus would have faced manslaughter if the Gov, kicked the bucket. I'm not sure but I heard they were chasing Imus in a high speed pursuit(that's the Gov's excuse anyways). They nearly had him but Imus let the window down and called the Gov a "funky white boy" and then the sh*t hit the fan.

Oceanpeg

at 21:32 on April 18th, 2007

No............................... There wasn't a car chase between the two................................. Governor Corzine was on his way to a meeting with Imus and the ladies involved with same in the Princeton area, that Imus did the name calling about, when the accident happened..................................... You can send get well messages to NJ Governor Corzine at http://www.njdems.org/index.php ..................................There's a recent update about the Corzine accident in the Asbury Park Press at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CORZINE_CRASH?SITE=NJASB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT