US attorneys to investigate manufactured traffic jam that may have caused woman’s death

US attorneys to investigate manufactured traffic jam that may have caused woman’s deathGovernor Chris Christie (Screenshot from YouTube user GovChristie)

The United States attorney for New Jersey is expected to announce on Thursday an investigation into lane closures last year near the George Washington Bridge. Meanwhile, Governor Chris Christie has fired his deputy chief of staff over the incident.

Representatives for US Attorney Paul J. Fishman confirmed early Thursday that officials are in the midst of deciding whether they should pursue a federal probe into last September’s lane closures in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

The Bergen Record newspaper published on Wednesday this week emails indicating that high-placed figures within the Christie administration ordered those closures after Ft. Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich declined to endorse the incumbent governor during last year’s election. Traffic on and around the world’s busiest bridge was brought to a standstill as a result of those manufactured traffic jams, and authorities now say one person may have died because emergency personnel couldn’t reach her in time due to the delays.

Fishman would announce the investigation on Thursday morning, the New York Times reported, though an official confirmation was yet to be published . A spokesperson for his office did confirm, however, that attorneys are indeed considering the merits of opening a probe.

"The Port Authority Office of Inspector General has referred the matter to us, and our office is reviewing it to determine whether a federal law was implicated," Rebekah Carmichael, a spokesperson for Mr. Fishman’s office, told Reuters.

The Port Authority controls the George Washington Bridge, which connects Ft. Lee to Manhattan. Around 102 million vehicles cross the bridge annually, but delays from September 9 through 12 crippled traffic and hindered emergency services. EMS coordinator Paul Favia told The Record that gridlock doubled response time in at least two instances, including one in which it took responders seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who died shortly thereafter.

Speaking Thursday for the first time since the Bergen Record released their report one day earlier, Gov. Christie called that incident “awful” and said he was “embarrassed and humiliated” by this week’s revelations

Christie told reporters that he had no knowledge of the planning or plotting involving those closures, and has so far taken disciplinary action against two employees tied to the scandal. Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly was fired from her role in the administration, Christie said, and former campaign manager Bill Stepien was told to withdraw his name as a candidate for chairman of the state's Republican Party.

The emails published by the Record attributed Kelly with writing to a Port Authority official, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the conduct that they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and for the people that were trusted to serve,” Christie said Thursday morning.

“There’s no justification for that behavior. There’s no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government,” he said.

“But I don’t want any of you to confuse what I’m saying this morning,” the governor added. “Ultimately I am responsible for what happens under my watch: the good and the bad. And when mistakes are made, then I have to own up to them and take the action that I believe is necessary in order to remediate them.”

Christie said he'll be in Ft. Lee later Thursday to apologize to residents there in person.