As you might guess, I’m not going to criticize New Jersey Gov. John Corzine for choosing to not wear a seatbelt. And I find the suggestion from one of his aides that he be issued a citation for not buckling up back when Corzine was fighting for his life mind boggling. Who thinks like that?

I do wish Corzine the best, and I hope he recovers in full.

But there is a legitimate public safety issue, here. And it’s this:

he SUV carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about 91 mph moments before it crashed, Superintendent of State Police Col. Rick Fuentes said Tuesday.

The governor was critically injured when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway just north of Atlantic City last week. He apparently was not wearing his seat belt as he rode in the front passenger’s seat.

The speed limit along that stretch of the parkway is 65 mph.

The state trooper-driven sport utility vehicle was in the left lane with its emergency lights flashing when a pickup tried to get out of its way. Instead, it set off a chain reaction that resulted in the crash.

Corzine was late for a meeting (between–guess who!?!–Don Imus and the Rugters women’s basketball team). So his driver rushed him through traffic. At ridiculously high speeds. And caused a serious accident.

When you live in the D.C. area, this kind of thing happens all the time (not the accident, the VIPs taking over the road), and just from personal observation, I’d say it’s happening more frequently. There seems to be an increasing feeling among many politicians that their meetings, their business, and their appointments are somehow more important than everyone else’s. Therefore, they can fly down highways, ignore red lights, and purge everyone else to the side of the roadway. If they can get their own police escort or caravan, even better.

I get caught in a caravan in D.C. about once every two weeks. When it’s the president or vice president, it’s merely annoying. They shut down all the streets on the route a good 3-4 minutes before the caravan arrives. And I’ll concede that there are probably good security reasons for the president and vice president to travel like this, though they do tend to abuse it (Bush has shut down cities in the past during rush hour in order to attend political fundraisers).

When it’s not Bush or Cheney, it can be downright scary. You glance in your review mirror to see a limo or three or four barreling up at you, flashing their lights. When you’re already in freeway traffic moving at freeway speeds, everyone scrambling to get out of the way, it’s not difficult to see how this can be pretty dangerous.

Increasingly, lesser-ranking public officials seem to think they shouldn’t have to obey traffic laws, either. Why was Gov. Corzine’s meeting that day more important than the meetings of everyone else on the road? Why was it so important that he had to endanger everyone else on the road? Because he’s an elected official? Posh.

But that’s exactly what many politicians seem to think. Take D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. When his car was busted on tape running red lights earlier this year with a police escort (at high speeds, on icy roads), he replied:

“If you’re trying to make sure that you’re on time so that the business of the city does not have to wait, stop or be delayed, I think it is appropriate,” Fenty told WTOP Radio.

That’s sanctimonious crap. But Fenty wasn’t even on city business. He was on his way to a fundraiser (he claims he was coming from city business, so it’s okay). His wife apparently gets the same privileges.

Now I doubt Corzine said to his driver, “Get me to the meeting, and blow through anyone who gets in your way.” I’m not singling him out specifically, or suggesting he’s any worse than anyone else. It’s more a culture of power thing–politicians thinking their business, government and personal, is somehow more important than everyone else’s.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 7:40 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.