It seems that the SUV that was carrying New Jersey Governor John Corzine when it was involved in a near-fatal crash last week was travelling at 91 miles per hour:
CAMDEN, N.J., April 17 ? Leading up to the accident in which Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey was critically injured, the state trooper at the wheel of his sport utility vehicle was driving at 91 miles per hour, the superintendent of the state police said this afternoon.
In a telephone news conference, the superintendent, Col. Rick Fuentes, said: ?With regard to the speed of the governor?s vehicle, all investigative data points to a speed of approximately 91 m.p.h. five seconds before impact with the guide rail. The vehicle?s speed at the time of impact with the guide rail was approximately 30 m.p.h.?
The speed of 90 m.p.h. is the equivalent of 132 feet a second ? or put another way, in two and one-third seconds a vehicle moving at that speed could travel farther than the length of a football field.
That speed, combined with the fact that Corzine was sitting the front passenger seat and not wearing a seatbelt when the crash occurred, probably accounts for the severity of his injuries.
And what was the emergency justifying such an excessive speed ?
The accident occurred last Thursday as the governor was traveling from Atlantic City to Princeton on the Garden State Parkway for a meeting between Don Imus, the fired radio talk-show host, and the Rutgers University women?s basketball team.
Oh yea, that.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
[...] New Jersey’s Governor: Unsafe At Any Speed [link] [...]