Fort Lee Emergency Responders Were Forced to Move on Foot

[RandySF]

Those involved were hardly upset at the trouble they were causing. One text message to David Wildstein, Christie's Port Authority official who carried out the closures, read, "Is it wrong that I'm smiling." The sender is unknown because the message was redacted.

But the closures caused real issues. Children and teachers were late to school, and there was even a minor accident involving a school bus.

The Fort Lee Police Department was also furious that it was never informed that the lanes would be closed. At 1:13 p.m. on Sept. 9, Cedrick Fulton, the director of tunnels, bridges and terminals, emailed Durando and let him know that police officers were having to play traffic cops instead of "attending to public safety issues".

The Bergen Record later reported that emergency personnel were delayed in responding to four incidents, including one in which a 91-year-old woman later died.

On Sept. 10, Port Authority Director of Government and Community Relations Tina Lado wrote to Bill Baroni -- who was then Christie's top official at the agency, but resigned last month -- about a disturbing situation: Ambulance attendants had to leave their vehicles and respond to an emergency on foot because traffic was so bad.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/fort-lee-traffic_n_4577487.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. shameful

[Cha]

2. Too bad Hicham Alnach didn't call the White House..

From your link..

"I went to my car and there were almost 5 miles of cars backed up," he told The Huffington Post. "I called the mayor's office, they said we didn’t close it. ‘We are surprised just like you.’ I called the chief of police they told me the same thing.”

Alnach then tried the Port Authority, where he said the person who answered was "very aggressive" and appeared to be "enjoying" the fact that people were upset.

A woman at the Port Authority named Rosa Trzaska did send an email at 11:45 a.m. that day to colleagues titled, “Complaints on Ft. Lee Traffic.” Whether she was the secretary that Alnach talked to isn’t confirmable. But she did pass on his complaints, and noted that he was threatening to go national with what was happening:

Alnach told The Huffington Post that he did, indeed, threaten to call the White House, in addition to the press corps and Christie’s office. But he never followed through on the threat, choosing instead to just bear the terrible traffic. In all, it took him one hour and 45 minutes to get to work that day. He works about 6 miles away from his home.

Now he knows Why!

[JustAnotherGen]

3. HuffPo

Is still pushing the endorsement angle?

Christie's Port Authority officials originally said they closed Fort Lee's access lanes as part of a traffic study. But as the emails released this week show, the motivations were less scientific and more political -- possibly to get back at Fort Lee's mayor, who wouldn't endorse the governor's reelection bid -- and involved coordination with Christie's deputy chief of staff.

I don't believe that - nearly as much as the angle that relates to thr NJ SCOTUS. That makes far more sense - and it is epic what our State Senate has done. Just epic.


The more the media pushes that the less our chances of getting rid of him. The more they show the Walkace replacement angle - the easier it will be to get low information voters in state to see what happened here.

[riverwalker]

4. the school bus accident

I read about it in the document dump. It was minor and no one hurt, side swiped due to all the merging BUT what if it were more serious???? I'm surprised more was not made of this. What if even one child was hurt or did not get emergency help because of the mess?