N.J. Governor Corzine Seriously Injured, Saved by SUV
New Jersey governor Jon Corzine was critically injured last night when his car was struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine was in critical condition Friday but expected to recover after his SUV crashed into a guard rail while heading to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
Police were searching for a pickup truck driver whose actions were blamed for the crash on the Garden State Parkway. Corzine, 60, suffered numerous fractures, including a leg, his ribs, sternum and a vertebrae, authorities said.
The governor won’t be able to resume his duties as governor for days, if not weeks, and he won’t walk normally for months, his doctor said. Fortunately, he did not suffer any brain damage, said Dr. Robert Ostrum, who performed two hours of surgery Thursday night at Cooper University Hospital.
Senate President Richard Codey has taken over as acting governor. “He’s in serious shape, but he’s alive and going to survive. Hopefully, he’ll be back to work in a few weeks,” Codey said Friday on WNBC-TV.
One would expect a governor to have a police escort, so it’s quite bizarre that he was not only struck by a pickup truck but that the other driver got away. I’m glad to hear that he’ll recover; certainly, it could have been far more serious had he been in, say, a Prius rather than an “unsafe” SUV.
As an aside, I’m curious why he was going to a meeting between Imus and the Rutgers women. Yes, Rutgers (aka “The State University of New Jersey”) is a state institution and as governor he is ex officio chairman of their board, but that’s generally a duty exercised in the breach and this was not an official university function.
His driver was a State Patrol officer.
Right. I meant outside the vehicle. Usually, there are motorcycle cops and at least a trailing and following state trooper vehicle. Shoot, football coaches get that much in Alabama.
Why was he going? That was a joke right? He was going to cash in—just like everyone else. I wonder is he could have sustained those injuries while wearing a seatbelt.
There is some question as to whether he was wearing a seatbelt, and, given the extent of his injuries, I’m willing to bet that he was not. With the advent of seatbelts and airbags, emergency services personnel are finding that auto accident injuries are starting to fall into two categories. Given seatbelts in use and properly deploying airbags, the injuries are either catastrophic due to the severity of the crash (vehicle basically ripped to pieces or crushed) or the victims are practically able to walk away even if the vehicle is badly damaged. Corzine’s SUV didn’t look damaged enough to be linked to the severity of his injuries (fractured leg, breastbone, 12 ribs) unless he was unbelted.
Not in the NE – standard police SUV with police gear, lights and sirens.
I saw the SUV on TV and am wondering what hit it and drove away?
Not to make light of his injuries but one more example that conservation is for the little people.
The Governor offered his residence as a site for the meeting. The Rutgers campus would likely be a pretty hostile place to Imus.
What is your evidence for this, statement? Its pure conjecture.
What is your evidence for this, statement? Its pure conjecture.
The modifier “could” is a surefire indicator of conjecture. Still, do you seriously doubt that there’s an advantage, when being struck by a pickup truck, to being in a taller, heavier vehicle?
Not counting about a 1000 studies on vehicles in crash tests.
You’re hammering a rubber ball, James.
While taking Bithead’s point, here’s a conclusion from an anti-SUV site:
Now, granted, he might have been more likely to roll over swerving to avoid the wreck over in his SUV than in the Prius. But, presuming that getting hit was unavoidable, the SUV was the place to be.
It depends on the speed, the types of vehicles involved, the safety devices on the vehicle, and the location and nature of contact.
The non-profit, independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates Prius as just as safe or safer than many SUVs.
James,
You ignore the possibility that a car will flip an SUV – and for a guy without a seatbelt on, that’s a disastrous outcome. A receptionist at a company I worked at a few years ago ended up wedging the front of her Civic under a Suburban – the Suburban driver (who was in the wrong) ended up very badly hurt; her, hardly at all.
Likewise, a year or so ago, a friend in an Infiniti G35 (little coupe) flipped an SUV (this time it was his fault).
The Prius ought to be lauded for providing its passengers excellent safety in a form which doesn’t just take it away from other crash victims. That’s the true disaster of SUVs – they’re a bit more dangerous for their own occupants than are cars (rollovers trump mass), and they’re a LOT more dangerous for everyone else. Not just a zero-sum game, but a lose-lose proposition.
And all you libs might be missing the fact that a lot of you are lawful evil and no matter the facts or the rules you will twist them to fit your own agenda and still think you stating or fallowing them just like the rest of us. Every time your arguments get smashed its so hard for understand why other people won’t believe them cause you wille,wille want them to because you do, so you go into fabrication of what ever you need to get people to believe in your hyper-poo, but, but, but, only will turn you into an ass not others into donkey’s, there is no magic in the lie only understanding in the truth.
do you seriously doubt that there’s an advantage, when being struck by a pickup truck, to being in a taller, heavier vehicle?
All other things being equal, when two vehicles collide the heavier one will experience lesser deceleration forces. (this is a direct consequence of the law of conservation of momentum) However, in practice all things are not equal. SUV’s are usually body-on-frame construction (i.e. they’re trucks) rather than unit-body construction with crumple zones, passenger safety cages, etc. These safety features are not present on some SUV’s, making them more dangerous to their passengers than a sedan that has them.
The paradox of the crumple zones is that a car that’s designed to crumple on impact (thus absorbing energy instead of transmitting it to the passenger compartment) will look like an accordion after an accident, while a vehicle that is not designed to crumple will look more or less intact. The passengers on the inside are another story since they’ve taken the shock of impact, not the vehicle… This may be why the SUV doesn’t look all that bad in the pictures while the Governor is pretty beat up.
As for your assertion about the advantage of a taller vehicle, a higher center of gravity is a disadvantage due to the risks of rollover, not to mention reduced maneuverability that can sometimes be used to avoid the accident in the first place.
As M1EK points out, compared to sedans, SUV’s are somewhat safer for their own passengers in multi-vehicles collisions, significantly more dangerous for their passengers in single-vehicle accidents (mainly due to rollover), and quite deadly to passengers in other vehicles involved in multi-vehicle collisions.
Take a look at this data from the Highway Loss Data Institute and you’ll see that there’s significant variation within each vehicle category (large SUV, midsize sedan, small pickup truck, etc.). In particular, the Prius is about 30% better with regard to injury compared to the fleet average of all vehicles, and equivalent to the fleet average of the “All Large SUV” category.
I agree that I’m glad to hear that he’ll recover.
Ok. I’ve tried to reply twice and your server eats the posts.
Is it broken?
Dude, you’ve posted the same message half a dozen times. -ed.
“And all you libs might be missing the fact that a lot of you are lawful evil and no matter the facts or the rules you will twist them to fit your own agenda and still think you stating or fallowing them just like the rest of us.”
Wait a darn second. I thought that we were Chaotic Evil, or Neutral Evil at best.
And all you libs might be missing the fact that a lot of you are lawful evil
SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!
G.A. … reactionary DUNGEONS & DRAGONS vet?
My worldview, it shakes ….
Nah.
I’ve driven both. That Tahoe he was in is pretty impressive handling- wise… even in it’s stock format… and in the Police config, which is what I drove for a while, there, you’d have to be pretty damned deliberate to get the thing to roll….and the Prius… well, let’s just say that after driving it, I don’t own one, and let it go at that. My conversion van handles better.
Yup D+D for over 30 years and used to have a very liberal lifestyle but I never believed in it as a philosophy, the liberal part I meant, and no I’m the chaotic evil one,remember I’m a christian.