"I'm New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead." That's how Corzine starts off a public service announcement to remind people to buckle up. Corzine is the current poster boy for bad seatbelt behavior: He wasn't buckled up when his SUV - which was traveling at 91 MPH - crashed on April 12, and he was critically injured, breaking many bones and lost half his blood. He remained on a ventilator for many days and required a number of surgeries.
Corzine mentions all of that during the PSA, and credits the medical care he got with saving his life. The AP reports that he worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the message. There are cutaways of photos of the wrecked SUV and the last shot of the ad shows him walking away, with his crutches.
I truly commend the governor for admitting that he made a mistake (almost a deadly one), I think he is a bigger man now by trying to get the word out to other motorists- GREAT PSA Mr. Governor.
anonymass
"I'm New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead."
I'm sure there are a lot of property taxpayers who would agree.
me
Reality is seatbelt laws have not reduced highway fatalities, sometimes they add to them through agressive driving and belt related injuries, sometimes they help. That accident was caused by driving an SUV at unsafe speeds, something that people do all to often. That is what should be discussed. I do not understand many peoples desire to tell other people what to do with their own lives, your insurance rates or medical bills are not going down because of seatbelt laws, wise up. The state makes money off the fines is about all. And maybe insurance company's bottom lines look better but you are not any better off and freedom to choose how you conduct your own life is worn down another notch. Why not mandate that everyone riding in a car wear a helmut or make the maximum driving age 70 or put limiters on car fuel injection so they can't go more then 70 miles an hour or... were does it end?
nick
"We think the ad is effective, but one thing to keep in mind is that Corzine's extraordinary medical care may have been prompted by his position and power."
what does this have to do with the PSA?? he's not saying "if you're rich, roll the dice and dont wear a seatbelt, you'll probably live, like me!"
Adriana
I think Christopher Moltisanti should make one of these, too.
outer burrougher
Ared, I thought the reports said that the caravan was doing around 75 on his way home from the hospital. While it is true that that is above the speed limit and thus, technically, speeding, anything less that and you're the slowest guy on the road in that part of Jersey (translation: parts not so clogged with people going in and out of the city that there's traffic even at two on a Wednesday morning).
Bob
Ared, I fully agree with you on nanny-state laws, just so long as you agree that, in the event you're injured while not wearing your seatbelt, you will pay all your medical costs without relying on insurance. Not up for that? Then buckle up.
k-t
I love how the person that was driving his car- a former police officer I believe, commented how he "was not aware how fast he was going" Last time I checked that was not a viable defense when your begging a NJ State Trooper for mercy.
Ared
I'm Jon Corzine and I support all kinds of nanny state laws, because they apply to you, not me.
Had the damn State Trooper not commented, you would have never known I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Now that I've been outed, please enjoy this self-serving mea culpa.
Oh, and I also sped on the way home from the hospital.
But you shouldn't do that either.
CD
What about "Oh, and by the way, don't go 90 miles an hour, either!"
Toby
Well Corzine has a gazillon dollars so he would have gotten the best medical care money could by regardless.
Cooper Hospital is pretty good and it is the only regional Trauma Center in less dense southern New Jersey, which anyone with those kinds of injuries would have been airlifted to.
He should have closed with "One more word of advice - don't hook up with golddigging wenches whom you have to tell security to keep away from your hospital bed and pay six million bucks to even though you're not even married to her dammit what was I thinking."
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