Time to break out the Freakonomics: does being a New Jersey governor predispose one to broken legs?

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine was apparently not wearing his seat belt as required by law when his official SUV crashed into a guard rail, leaving the governor hospitalized in critical condition, a spokesman said Friday. A state trooper was driving Corzine to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team Thursday night when another vehicle, swerving to avoid a pickup truck, hit the governor's SUV and sent it into the guard rail on the Garden State Parkway. The crash broke the governor's leg, six ribs, his sternum and a vertebrae. Authorities were searching for the pickup truck driver blamed for causing it...Corzine was the third straight* New Jersey governor to break a leg while in office. James E. McGreevey broke his left leg in 2002 during a nighttime walk on the beach, and Christie Whitman broke her right leg while skiing in the Swiss Alps in 1999.

Not to make light of what is obviously a horrible accident, but I detect a "buckle up New Jersey" public service announcement on the way. Let's see...seatbeltless car crash leading to a broken leg (and worse)? Makes sense. Skiing in the Swiss Alps leading to a broken leg? Makes sense as well.

But - walking (or jogging, according to NJ.com) on the beach at night leading to broken leg? That's a headscratcher. Apparently the circumstances surrounding McGreevey's fracture were a little mysterious. Dang, The NJ Blog beat me to it: The Curse of the Gubernatorial Broken Leg.

* Given what we know now about former governor McGreevey, I think "consecutive" would be the more appropriate word.

Labels: news, NJ

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