Folks, PLEASE wear your seatbelts!!!!!

[ObamaNationYes]

New Jersey Governor Not Wearing Seatbelt
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
AP
CAMDEN, New Jersey (April 13) - New Jersey 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.

A spokesman for the governor said it appeared that Corzine was not wearing a seatbelt during the crash, despite a state law requiring it for front-seat passengers.

The crash on the Garden State Parkway broke the governor's leg, six ribs, his sternum and fractured a vertebrae. Authorities were still searching for a pickup truck driver whose actions were blamed for causing it.

Corzine, 60, did not suffer any brain damage in the crash. But he won't be able to resume his duties as governor for several days, if not weeks, and he won't walk normally for months, Dr. Robert Ostrum said performing surgery on the governor Thursday night at Cooper University Hospital.

Senate President Richard Codey became acting governor Thursday evening after being notified by fax from Corzine's office that the governor had been injured.

[Ignacio Upton]

1. And Ahhnold didn't wear his helmet either when he got into that motarcycle accident

But in both cases, they should have been more responsible.

[ObamaNationYes]

2. Agreed. N/T

[Buzz Clik]

45. And Limbaugh didn't wear a helmet in combat in Vietnam.

oh wait... nevermind.

[devilgrrl]

3. I always wear my seat belt...

it's the first thing I do when I get in the car and if I have a passenger, I make them fasten theirs before I move.

:shrug:

[Warpy]

16. People razzed me for being such a seatbelt fanatic

until it saved my tender ass in a 7 car pileup on the Interstate.

I was hurt, but not badly. I'd likely have been killed without the belt.

[devilgrrl]

18. I always get harped on for keeping the car doors locked!

:crazy: What's up with that?

[shanti]

48. as do i

after being involved in a disfiguring head-on in 1974 with no seatbelt. no laws then either...i'm a fervent pro-seatbelt supporter.

didn't corzine's car have an airbag??

[BOSSHOG]

4. I don't start the vehicle

until everyone aboard is buckled up. And, the driver never uses a cell phone.

[CottonBear]

9. Good for you BOSS!

:hi: We are having a beautiful day here in NE GA but it will rain all weekend. Oh well, at least the massive amount of pollen is gone and we need the rain desperately.

Have a great and safe weekend and happy gardening! :)

CB

[BOSSHOG]

13. Buckled up and ready to go

We are supposed to get big rains tonight and tomorrow but Sunday should be beautiful. Heading for the french quarter fest on Sunday to pig out and dance like a fool in Jackson Square. My tomatoes and okra and squash are hanging in there. I think I planted too early but they are getting plenty of sunshine and warmth now. My wife found small Gnomes on the internet, they are five inches high. So she's got a gnome garden off the patio out back. Check out my garden gurus out of Mississippi and heard on our local NPR station:

http://www.mpbonline.org/radio/programs/GestaltGardener/index.htm

They are very helpful and have fun giving help. It think they are just two old dope smoking hippies but they know their gardening stuff.

[CottonBear]

23. Oh my Jackson Square, the French Quarter fest! I miss NOLA so much!

I love the Gnome Garden concept! :) You'll have to post a picture of it for us! I'll check out the Gestalt Gardeners link! I'm sure they do know their gardening stuff! My old hippie friends can grow just about anything too! LOL!

Y'all have fun and toast NOLA for me! :hi:

[BOSSHOG]

I have to admit

I don't know how to post pictures.

Yeah, those old hippies sure can grow stuff.

[CottonBear]

26. You need to upload your pictures to a hosting site like Photobucket

and then copy the url of each picture and paste it into your post and voila! A picture appears. You can also link to another site as well by right clicking on the image, selecting properties and copying and pasting the url.

I, unfortunately, have forgotten my Photobucket password and thus can't access my account at the moment. I'll remember it eventaully, I'm sure! ;)

[nini]

5. what a dumbass

Here's another story for you.

When I had my car accident and was in the hospital for a few weeks there was a code blue in the room next door in the middle of the night. I could hear the whole thing - it was ugly.

When the nurse came in my room later I asked her if the patient lived - the answer was no. Then she told me it was an 18 year old girl who was in a car accident and did not have her seat belt on and went into the window. The ridiculous part was this same girl had been in an accident about a year before and was in the hospital because she didn't have her seatbelt on!! ugh 18 years old and dead because she was stupid.


I don't get why people don't put them on. It's easy and can save your life.

[ORDagnabbit]

7. I agree what a dumbass. n/t

[Sequoia]

12. A friend of mine died on Mother's Day because of no seat belt.

She had just taken her parents to the train station in Los Angeles as they were going back to Mexico. It had rained overnight and the road was slick. She was on a curve of road where one freeway merges into the next when her tires lost contact with the road and the car tumbled off. It was so very sad.

[CottonBear]

6. My dad was an orthopaedic surgeon who operated on all those unfortunate people

who didn't wear seatbelts or helmets. Sometimes you sustain ugly, nasty injures that fuck you up for life and sometimes you die. Sometimes death is preferable to the injures (brain injuries, lost limbs, paralysis and general mutilation.) :(

Please, wear your seatbelts and helmets.

[ElizabethDC]

8. Yep, seatbelts are vital

I know a 17-year-old girl who died last year because she unbuckled her seatbelt to take a nap . . . her boyfriend fell asleep at the wheel and crashed a car; he was uninjured, she was killed.

Please do wear your seatbelts, folks!

[apnu]

10. I always wear my seat belt and nobody gets in my car w/out one.

I also wear my helmet when riding my bike, no matter how much a mushroom I look like.

Not wearing your seatbelt is stupid. I don't care what political stripe you are, its still dumb.

[ObamaNationYes]

14. I am betting you don't look like a Mushroom at all,

But if you do - you look like a SMART ONE!

I PLEDGE TO WEAR MY SEATBELT ALWAYS!!

[CottonBear]

24. I always wear my seatbelt and my helemts when bike & horseback riding.

I value my head and brains and I don't care if someone thinks I look funny. Better to look funny than to be brain damaged or dead.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. if we cannot K&R this any faster, COME ON FOLKS!

pledge to wear yours by K&R

[dottym]

15. many years ago i totalled my car. i

wasn't wearing a seatbelt but the airbags went off. i had some airbag burns, but no injuries. i still didn't wear a seatbelt. it was after a saw a computer animation of princess diana's accident -- 1 wearing a seatbelt and the other she wasn't. that's when i started to wear mine. it's as automatic as starting the car now.

[Pachamama]

17. If this is true, why didn't the State Trooper next to him start driving w/out the Gov buckled in?

The driver of the car that Gov. Corzine was in, was driven by a NJ State Trooper, someone required to uphold the law and cite those that are violating it. Why did that trooper start the car and drive when his passenger was not buckled in?

Don't know about you folks, but when I as the driver of a car get in, I don't drive away until all my passengers have acknowledged being checked in, and in my case as a Mom, that I've verified it personally.

If this is true about Corzine not wearing a seatbelt, shame on him, but shame on the Trooper too.

[ObamaNationYes]

19. Good Point, and by the way - please tell me the Acting Governor is

A good liberal. In my state, the Lt. Governor would have filled in and they may or may not be from the same party as the Gov.

[Pachamama]

25. I don't know the answer about the Acting Gov, only that he is the Pres. of the NJ Senate and had

acted previously as Governor when the previous Gov. Mcgreevy stepped down.

Not sure what a good liberal is, I just think that its important to have a good American in a job whose loyalties are to upholding the laws, regardless of party affiliation.

:hi:

[ObamaNationYes]

27. You are right..

Sorry, I must have drank too much Kool Aid at lunch!

[karynnj]

35. Codey is very very good and a Democrat

He became the acting governor when McGeevey resigned and did such a good job that he became very well liked and is considered incredibly honest - and this is NJ!!! There was talk before the 2005 election that he would run for Governor - and many thought the reason he didn't was that he would have been unlikely to raise sufficient money to win against Corzine.

When phone banking, many people volunteered when asked if they were for Corzine or Forrester - that they wished they could vote for Codey.

[bklyncowgirl]

42. The acting Governor is Richard Codey -- he's done this before--should have it down to an art form

He served as acting governor when Corzine's predecessor had to resign after it was revealed that he appointed his Israeli male lover as head of New Jersey's Homeland Homeland Security Department. It was a most amusing scandal.

Codey did an excellent job and I for one was somewhat disappointed when Corzine more or less pushed him out of contention for the Governor's spot

[mcscajun]

44. The Acting Governor is a Democrat, so rest easy.

He filled in previously when Gov. McGreevey resigned.

In NJ, we have no Lt. Governor.

[phylny]

34. I heard on the news last night, "Governor Corzine is known to NOT wear

his seatbelt when in the car." This was before they confirmed that he wasn't wearing it last night, either.

I thought the same thing regarding the trooper.

[mcscajun]

43. This is why...

Asked if the trooper serving as his driver and protector might have tried to persuade the governor to put on his seat belt, Mr. Shea, alluding to the governor’s headstrong nature, said, “Those who know Governor Corzine know that he is not always amenable to suggestions.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/nyregion/14corzine.html?pagewanted=2

I think "not always amenable to suggestions" is saying a lot less than is the case here.

[knitter4democracy]

20. From what I read, though, it's more that he was hit.

The truck that hit him (not the red one off to the side, the white one) hit his door directly. He'd have been hurt either way. What I read this morning said that it wasn't clear whether he'd been wearing one or not. If a door smashes into ya, you're going to break. Also, his head injury was just a scratch, which makes me think that something was holding him back but couldn't do anything about the side.

Still, if he weren't wearing it, he's a moron.

[seabeyond]

29. bu it is much easier to believe that to wear the seatbelt will keep us safe from all harm and death

then when we buckle up and get on the road we are in a nice safe illusion to alow us to feel more in control. of course it matters on the accident and how the accident on who gets hurt, seat belt or not. easier to say whoosh, his trauma well deserved cause of his stupidity in not buckling up.... instead of it can happen to all of us when we get in the car, a risk we take every single day.

thank you for checking this out further, and posting

[knitter4democracy]

36. I have to admit

My first thought was, "I'll bet he wasn't wearing a seatbelt." Then I read the whole account of the accident. He was sitting in the front passenger seat, and the truck hit the passenger side, it sounded like at full force. There isn't much that can be done at that point. *sigh* I know pain, and I feel really bad for him being in horrendous pain with a long-term set of problems now.

[Zenlitened]

37. I'm not sure that's the case. Looking at a photo of the crash scene...

... it looks like the passenger side of the vehicle was largely undamaged. Both doors were able to be opened normally, it appears:



My impression is that the major impact came from the governor's vehicle hitting the guard-rail. Without a seatbelt on, he'd be tossed about pretty hard at the moment of impact.

Disclosure: I've been a dedicated seatbelt wearer ever since I smacked my knee up against the front dash in a minor little fender-bender. Couldn't have been going more than 10 or 15 miles an hour, but it was enough to launch me straight forward from my seat when we hit. That little demonstration of the laws of physics ("a body in motion tends to remain in motion") was enough for me!

[mcscajun]

46. The problem was the impact with the guardrail.

The Suburban slid into the end of a guardrail, which “penetrated the vehicle, and struck both Rasinski and Governor Corzine,” according to a police report.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/nyregion/14corzine.html

[knitter4democracy]

47. Whoa. That's scary.

Yeah, from the sounds of it, he wasn't wearing a belt and wouldn't be entirely better if he'd worn one, but he sure would be better off than he is right now.

[Zenlitened]

38. Also, see accident reconstruction graphic at nytimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/nyregion/20070413_CORZINE_GRAPHIC.html

Based on police reports, says the SUV was sent into a spin after being bumped on the right-front fender, but that the big impact occurred on the left side, the driver's side, on hitting the guard-rail.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. K&R

[formercia]

22. Not setting a good example. n/t

Arrogance has its own rewards.

[napi21]

28. I agree passengers should wear seatbelts, but before you all

call Gov. Corzine nasty names, we should ALL waitto see what the REAL story is.

So far, I've heardhe was sitting in the back, he was sitting in the front, he just had a broken leg, he has massive injuries, he was forced off the road, a truck him him.....

You get the point. There have been sooo many conflicting stories out there, with all the media trying to ge tthe FIRST reports, and screw the facts!

I'm saying a few prayers forthe Gov. and I'm willing to wait to hear what the real facts are before I make any judgements.

[Sweet Freedom]

30. And teach your kids to wear them

I am always shocked when other parents allow my child to ride in their car without a seatbelt on. One parent had broken seatbelts in her car and actually told my child to tie it around her waste. :shrug:

My daughter knows that she is always to wear a seatbelt and if another adult tells her it's okay not to, she can call me to pick her up no matter where she is.

On a side note: My dad's stepdaughter was killed in a car accident. She lost control of her vehicle on a a gravel road and flipped it. Her head was caught over the steering wheel, her neck was broken and she was killed instantly. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt. She was only 16.

[RestoreGore]

31. I sure hope they find the criminal who hit him

But that won't be as important to the press that can now villify Governor Corzine. And yes, if he was not wearing his belt he should have been, but considering how trashed the SUV he was in looked and that he was hit from the side I don't know if the results would have been any different had he had it on. I will wait until all the facts are out if we ever really get them. I'm just hoping for now that my Governor pulls through and they find the criminal who caused and then fled the accident.

[qanda]

32. What a lesson in double standards

The people who set and enforce the laws, don't follow them themselves. That's just pathetic. Our car doesn't move until everyone is in a seatbelt.

[nedbal]

33. Corzine should resign since he has no regard for the law. No tolerance for anyone - any more-

[Laurier]

39. Seatbelts save lives.

There is real doubt about that.

I understand that people don't like being "told" what to do, and I understand why they resist the intrusion. But I believe wholeheartedly that seatbelt laws are a good thing, enacted for good reason, and although I understand the usual counter-arguments, the cold, hard reality is that seatbelts save lives.

Best wishes to the injured, and I hope that he recovers fully. I also hope that others take note and buckle up to avoid preventable serious injuries and deaths.

[riverdeep]

40. In my state you can be ticketed as a driver

if your passengers aren't wearing seatbelts. I use this as an excuse to make them wear it, instead of making me seem like a safety nazi.

[B Calm]

41. Last week I watched them use the jaws of life to rescue a 6 year old

girl from the back seat of a car. Mother pulled out in front of a dump truck loaded with gravel. Mom and a infant boy in a baby seat lived through the crash, but the little girl died in route to the hospital. Everyone had their seat belts on including the 6 year old girl. I do think if the dump truck had been driving with his headlights on MIGHT have saved this mother from her grief. In Canada it's the law to drive with your headlights on 24 hours a day. I get even more angry when I see people on rainy days driving with no headlights on. I wish everyone could ride in the cab of my 18 wheeler on a rainy day and look in my mirrors for a car that is passing me with no lights on. It would scare you to the point where you would drive 24 hours a day with your headlights on.