Police driver seems to blame for Gov Corzine crash on Parkway

Aggressive driving by his New Jersey police driver Trooper Robert Rasinski was the main cause of the crash that nearly killed state Governor Jon Corzine on the Garden State Parkway Apr 12. And obsolete engineering designs of the steel guardrail in the median caused what should be a safety feature of the Parkway to become a near-lethal spear that reared up and tore through the Governor's out-of-control vehicle.

The lack of a full rightside shoulder and an intruding sign pole forced a driver to swerve left, causing the chain reaction of a bump to the governor's vehicle that sent it spinning out of control off the northbound roadway. The crash occurred ont he Parkway at MP44 in Galloway Township only a few miles north of the Atlantic City junction.

Initial accounts by police were that the crash was caused by the erratic driving of vehicles ahead and that speed was not a factor.

'We dunnit'

State police chief Col Joseph Fuentes yesterday gave a completely new account - almost a we-dunnit.

A crash data recorder in the governor's wrecked vehicle, Fuentes said, shows it was traveling at 91mph (146km/hr) five seconds before the crash. Moreover from eye witness accounts, he said, it now seems the motorists ahead were doing exactly what they are supposed to do when police vehicles with sirens screaming and lights flashing come up on them at high speed. They were attempting to get out of the way by pulling off to the right.

For a day after the crash police pictured it as the product of erratic driving by a hit-and-run driver of a red pickup who fled the scene of the accident. There was a big hunt for him. He was found Saturday: Kenneth Potts, 20, who lives in Egg Harbor and works in Atlantic City. Police now say Potts correctly tried to pull onto the narrow right shoulder to allow the Governor's two-vehicle motorcade to get by but was forced by a protruding signpost to swerve a little to the left. It was this little left swerve which caused the driver of a white pickup John Carrino to pull left also to avoid hitting Potts' red vehicle.

The Governor's vehicle and the white pickup of Carrino then collided causing the Governor's driver to lose control and it spun left off the northbound roadway into the greassy median where it caught the end of a guardrail sideways.

Police now acknowledge that Potts and Carrino acted appropriately in the circumstances and no charges are contemplated against them.

The New York Times which has a clever animation of the crash reports today: "After the white pickup truck collided with the governor’s vehicle, Trooper Rasinski lost control of the Suburban and it careered toward the wooded center median, investigators found. As Trooper Rasinski tried to steer away from the woods, the Suburban slid clockwise from the paved roadway and shoulder, and the passenger side collided with the end of a steel guardrail. The guardrail sliced into the passenger compartment, just in front of where (Gov) Corzine’s legs would have been, and narrowly missed both the governor and the trooper as the Suburban spun and came to rest with its back portion on top of the guardrail."

see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/nyregion/18corzine.html?th=&emc=th&pag...

Police chief Fuentes says speed is always a contributing factor in road accidents: "It goes to the heart of what damage you may have on the vehicle."

Corzine was speeding to get from a conference of mayors in Atlantic City back to his Princeton governor's mansion to adjudicate a meeting between radio talker Don Imus and a woman basketball team that the radioman had insulted.

Fuentes said that police have discretion about the speed they drive in emergency situations and also when they are in heavy traffic. They will muscle their way through dense traffic with sirens and flashing lights to keep from sitting alongside other vehicles. However reports are the Garden State Parkway was not especially crowded at the time of the accident last Thursday at 18:15 and traffic was moving freely.

Gov Corzine was not wearing his seatbelt. Under New Jersey law the driver of a vehicle is responsible for getting passengers to wear their seatbelts.

It must be tough - unrealistic perhaps - for a police driver to order a governor to "buckle up" but by law he should refuse to drive him unbuckled!

Fuentes says he has asked for a review of the executive protection squad that drives the governor and the training they get - a tactic acknowledgment of fault on the part of the driver.

To be fair to police driver Rasinsky, whatever the law says, an arrogant and aggressive style of driving is pretty much the norm for transporting VIPs. Shock at the Governor's 91mph is akin to expressions of amazement by the bordello pianist at reports of immoral proceedings in the rooms above.

Parkway safety
Unsafe conditions in this segment of the Garden State Parkway clearly contributed to the Governor's accident too. Kenneth Potts should have had a clear right shoulder to pull onto. The presence of a signpost in his path, police say, caused him to swerve left, setting off the accident.

Further the guardrail end was a hazard. The crash data recorder shows the governor's vehicle was traveling at 30mph (50km/hr) by the time it spun around and hit end of a median guardrail. Not a great speed but enough to nearly kill Gov Corzine.

Guardrail ends have been the subject of much research and innovation, although one of the country's experts, Don Ivey at Texas Transportation Institute says most of the focus has been on designing them for direct front-on hits where the crumple zone of the car's engine compartment absorbs some of the collision energy. He says road managers have been slow to add cushioning devices needed to handle the most dangerous side-on hits to guardrail ends - the kind that injured Corzine so badly.

Restrictions on toll rates on the Garden State Parkway have constrained its modernization.

Corzine still serious condition
Corzine, 60, remains heavily sedated on a drip and breathing ventilator in hospital in Camden. He suffered a badly mangled upper left leg, severe blows to his chest which broke 12 ribs and other lesser injuries. He lost half his body's stock of blood before he was stabilized.

UPDATE: NJ transport commissioner and Turnpike chairman Kris Kolluri said today that Gov Corzine's injuries will delay presentation of proposals for longterm leases or concessions of tollroads in the state - see Briefs item at top right on home page. TOLLROADSnews 2007-04-18