Governor Thought He Might Not Live

N.J.'s Corzine Describes Pain Of Auto Accident

PRINCETON, N.J., May 5 -- In excruciating pain from injuries suffered in his April 12 auto accident, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) feared his life was nearly over.

"I was wondering if I was going to make it," he said Saturday in an interview. "I was wondering if I was going to live and trying to keep my balance, find out whether the other people were hurt."

He said he remembers flying to a hospital after being pulled from the wreckage of his state vehicle.

"My chest was extraordinarily painful," Corzine said. "It scared me because I thought maybe I was going to have some kind of heart problem."

It wasn't his heart. Corzine, 60, had broken his leg, 11 ribs, a collarbone and his sternum. The sport-utility vehicle, driven by a state trooper, had been going 91 mph along the Garden State Parkway, just north of Atlantic City.

The governor was hospitalized for 18 days, undergoing three operations and using a ventilator for more than a week while being kept in intensive care.

Despite his injuries, Corzine was released from a hospital last week and expects to resume work Monday from the governor's mansion in Princeton.

"I think I am the most blessed guy in the world," Corzine said. "I don't have neck injuries. I don't have spinal injuries. I don't have head injuries of any substance."

Speaking in the backyard garden of the mansion, Corzine was sitting in a chair with his girlfriend's dog and his children and granddaughter nearby.

New Jersey Senate President Richard J. Codey (D) has been filling in for Corzine since the crash.

Corzine was on his way to a meeting when the accident occurred. He was not wearing a seat belt, which is required by state law, and he has paid a $46 fine and apologized.

"I thoughtlessly had not put on my seat belt, and it's a steep price to pay," Corzine said.

The governor does not recall much from the crash.

"I had a pile of papers in my lap that I was working on while we were on our way," he said. "I was engrossed in that, which I typically am, sending off a to-do list to whoever I happened to be picking on at that moment, and editing papers. I trust the people who are driving the car, so I wasn't paying attention to what they were doing."

The crash happened when the governor's vehicle was clipped by a pickup truck and slammed into a guardrail. The pickup had swerved to avoid another vehicle that was trying to get out of the governor's way.

Although a state police review board is examining the crash and a commission is studying the police unit that protects the governor, Corzine had only praise for Robert Rasinski, the trooper who was driving him.

And he marveled at Sgt. Jim Ryan, a trooper riding in a second vehicle who covered Corzine with his own body to protect the governor from a fire that was quickly extinguished.

"This, I have to say, is one of the most extraordinary things I've ever experienced in my life," Corzine said.