Fort Lee woman died as GWB closures delayed medical help, report says [View all]
Source: NJ.com
By Brent Johnson/The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — The controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge last September delayed emergency responders from attending to at least four medical situations in Fort Lee — including helping a 91-year-old woman who lay unconscious and later died, according to a report by The Record.
Democrats have long accused Republican Gov. Chris Christie of ordering the lane closures as political retribution for Fort Lee's Democratic mayor refusing to endorse his re-election bid last year. Today, newly unveiled e-mails show that one of Christie's top aides knew about the closures in advance. The governor himself has denied being involved and today issued a statement admonishing the aide.
As traffic clogged the area, the response time doubled in at least two medical calls, according to a letter from Paul Favia, the head of Fort Lee's EMS department, sent to the borough's mayor, the Record's report said.
On the morning of Sept. 9 — the first day of the gridlock — EMS crews took seven to nine minutes to arrive at the scene of a car accident in which four people were injured, when the response time should have been less than four minutes, according to the report.
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Read more: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/fort_lee_woman_died_as_gwb_closures_delayed_medical_help.html
The local access lanes at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee. (Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger)
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