Posted on 04/14/2007 11:09:02 PM PDT by dennisw
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- State Police have declined to charge the 20-year-old driver of a pickup truck for leaving the scene of a crash that critically injured Gov. Jon Corzine this week after the man told investigators he was trying to make room for the governor's motorcade. However, authorities left open the possibility the driver could face other charges in the coming days, saying the investigation is not complete. State Police still want to interview Corzine, who remained on a ventilator Saturday, unable to speak.
Surgery on the governor's injured leg was successful Saturday, and another operation was planned for Monday.
The pickup truck driver, who is blamed for Thursday night's wreck, told investigators he didn't stop because he did not realize he was involved. The man's name was not released by state police because he was not charged.
"He hadn't any inkling that he contributed to it," New Jersey State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said. "That alleviates him of the responsibility of remaining at the accident scene. There's nothing he did here criminally. He did what he felt was the best he could."
Della Fave said the driver saw Corzine's motorcade with its flashing lights traveling in the left lane, and edged his pickup truck further to the right to give the official vehicles a wide berth
In so doing, the red pickup's right wheels went onto the grassy highway shoulder, alarming the driver. He looked up to see a highway mile marker sign directly in front of him, and steered hard to the left to avoid hitting it.
That brought the red pickup back onto the roadway and into the path of a white pickup truck, which also swerved to the left to avoid the red truck. The white vehicle struck Corzine's sport utility vehicle, sending it careening into a guard rail.
The driver of the red truck was found Friday night at an Atlantic City casino where he works and interviewed by police. He was found using information from local police and leads generated from parkway surveillance cameras and toll information, police said.
The driver of the truck picked it up Saturday afternoon at the New Jersey State Police station in Buena Vista, but did not talk to the media.
At his home in Little Egg Harbor Township, a man who answered the door angrily ordered reporters to leave the property, and would not speak with them.
The driver could not be located Saturday night at the casino where he works.
Corzine had been on his way to a meeting at his mansion in Princeton between radio show host Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team.
The 60-year-old governor, who was not wearing his seat belt in the front passenger's seat, broke his leg, 12 ribs, his breastbone and suffered a broken collarbone. He also had a head laceration and a minor fracture on a lower vertebra
Karma’s a bitch.
The governor needs to be charged and fined.
It’s Imus’s fault. If he’d not been a racist, Corzine would net be headed to this meeting. Of course, it could be Bush’s fault too.
I’m glad I was wearing mine yesterday.....
my beloved yellow cruiser (the police cruiser to my friends) is now gone :-(
Fred Thompson, red pick-up driver, hasn't even declared and the news media is already trying to smear him with their mile-wide scarlet-dripping guilt-by-association brush!
Bummer for the hardware, Good news for the wetware.
ping
I was actually in the market for a new truck anyway so it couldn’t of happened at a better time lol. Insurance is going to cover my car so big new (pre-owned) dodge truck here I come!
The plebes need to scurry into the muddy ditch to make way for the prince’s carriage!
The prince felt he was above the law (of physics) and has paid the price.
Sounds like a reasonable explanation. Has a ring of truth to it. Since the guy was not charged, his story probably matched eyewitness reports.
Corzine has nobody to blame but himself for the extent of his injuries. Just clicking that buckle may have prevented all or most of them.
The governor's motorcade expected the peasants to yield as it sped towards a meeting over ginned up racial grievances. The meeting between Don Imus and the basketball team he ridiculed.
So the peasant in the red pickup truck didn't yield properly and initiated the chain of events that left this governor Corzine in the hospital. Corzine was happy to participate in and exploit this racial grievance circus. He was not happy to wear the seatbelts that peasants must do or be cited and fined. This stupidity landed Corzine in the hospital.
1) Stupid racial grievance meeting
2) Stupid governor for not wearing seatbelt
3) Stupid pickup driver
Has there ever been a report of how fast Corzine’s vehicle was going. My bet is he was late and speeding with the flashing lights...
My guess too and the commoner in the red pickup truck was expected to get the ____ out of the way
I haven’t heard or read much about the white pick-up truck and its driver.
You know - - the guy who actually crashed into Corzine.
Was the white pick-up truck part of the motorcade, and speeding along with it?
How could the driver of this white pick-up truck so recklessly try to blow by another truck which had just swerved off the road on the immediate right? the driver of the white truck didn’t slow down and use extra caution at the sight of this obvious problem? And now the police are declining to charge the driver of the red pick-up truck? What’s more, it sure sounds to me like this New Jersey State Police Capt. Al Della Fave is going out of his way to defend the driver of the red pick-up truck....
Something stinks to high heaven.
1) Motorcade speeding like hell.
2) Motorcade surprises driver of red pickup truck as it overtakes the red pickup truck at high speed.
3) Red pickup truck driver swerves to the right to get out of the way, overdoes it, and swerves back to the left into path of white pickup truck to avoid going off the road.
4) White pickup truck driver swerves left to avoid red pickup truck, strikes Governor’s SUV, and sends it careening into the guard rail out of control.
The sequence of events probably took three to five seconds. The at-fault party is probably the drivers of the vehicles in the motorcade, including State Police. That puts the State Police between a rock and a hard place. If they try to pin the blame on the red pickup truck driver, then they may go down in flames in a big way if the red pickup driver gets a good lawyer, sues, and the dirty details are aired in a public courtroom.
What I’ve been saying all along. Speed, Speed and Speed
some more is the key here.
3000 deaths in Iraq in 5 years is unexceptibe, but 40 to
50 thousand DOAs on our nations roadways is acceptable
carnage....JJ61
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