Seriously injured New Jersey governor was not wearing seatbelt

NEW JERSEY Governor Jon S Corzine was apparently not wearing his seatbelt as required by law when his official SUV crashed into a guard rail, leaving the governor hospitalised in critical condition, a spokesman said Friday.

A state trooper was driving Mr Corzine to a meeting between controversial broadcaster Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team on Thursday at around 6pm when a vehicle, swerving to avoid a pickup truck, hit the governor’s SUV and sent it into a guard rail.

When Mr Corzine arrived at the hospital, doctors said he was conscious but had several injuries: a femur bone broken in two places that had lacerated his skin, a broken sternum, six broken ribs on each side, a head laceration and a minor fracture on a lower vertebrae.

Mr Corzine, aged 60, did not suffer brain damage. But he won’t be able to resume his duties as governor for several days, if not weeks, and won’t walk normally for months, said Dr Robert Ostrum, a surgeon at Cooper University Hospital.

The driver, Trooper Robert Rasinski, had minor injuries and an aide escaped uninjured.

Yesterday, the hospital’s trauma chief, Dr Steven E Ross, said Corzine was stable and improving, and that he could be removed from a ventilator within the next few days. Corzine remained heavily sedated because the pain from chest injuries made it difficult to breathe, Dr Ross said.

Senate President Richard Codey became acting governor Thursday evening.

Mr Corzine, a Democrat, gave up his seat in the US Senate to become governor. He went into politics after being ousted from Goldman Sachs, where he had been chief executive officer, in a power dispute in 1999. He was elected to the Senate the following year.