Expect lawsuits galore

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The chain-reaction crash that killed two and injured five on the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield will generate lawsuits galore that we'll be reading about for a couple of years. 

But the story on the front page of The Record today left a couple of important questions unanswered, despite the effort of at least four reporters for the Woodland Park daily and The Star-Ledger, and an unknown number of editors.

Reading the story, the time line begins around 6:45 in the morning Friday -- when a tractor-trailer's rear wheels fell off -- and ends at 7:19 a.m., when two victims were pronounced dead. I'm sure lawyers are already drawing up suits against the owner of that apparently poorly maintained truck.

The story is silent on whether it was dark or light. Why couldn't drivers see vehicles and people in the travel lanes before they struck them? 

A state trooper is quoted: "It's just one of those things that unfolded so rapidly, nobody had time to stop and get out of the way." 

What is the chance the paper will do a follow and report on whether any of the drivers were speeding, speaking on cellphones and so forth?

Accident of the day

To supplement the gore on the turnpike, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes runs a non-fatal "accident-of-the-day" photo on L-2 today. 

A fatal SUV hit-and-run involving a worshiper on his way to a synagogue in Englewood is relegated to L-3. 

Cliffview Pilot.com has far more information on the hit-run, including the victim's name and profession. Here's the link:

Doctor killed in Englewood

A few years ago, another Orthodox Jew was killed by an SUV as he was crossing Grand Avenue. 

The Englewood reporter quoted police as saying the man wasn't in a crosswalk when he was stuck, but there were no crosswalks at that point on Grand. Maybe the reporter did the story by phone, and never went to the scene to check out the cops' statement.

I'll bet there was a big lawsuit filed over that Grand Avenue fatality, though I never saw anything about it in the paper.

Rising disappointment in Christie

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It's good to see rising discontent with Governor Christie reflected in the news and editorial columns of The Record of Woodland Park (map), but some reporters still are being fed pablum.

How does a Page 1 piece with the headline, "Turnpike as moneymaker," get published today with only vague references to "roads should be subsidized by the trucking companies that use the roads"?  

A much better story for that space would have been the bigger-than-anticipated cuts in state school aid.

Christie's new transportation commissioner condemns politics in transportation decision-making, plans reform of turnpike employee work rules and pensions, and wants to form public-private partnerships to make infrastructure repairs. But he won't raise our low gasoline tax or tolls for drivers, and didn't discuss specific mass-transit improvements.

Moreover, the story contains no revenue projections or when the extra money is expected to pour in. Is this piece by Staff Writer Karen Rouse nothing more than a bunch of trial balloons by Transportation Czar James S. Simpson?

Is it a coincidence that a story on a 604-pound woman appears on Page A-8, next to a photo of Christie in Wayne? Or that the words "promise" and "promises" appear in two headlines on the same page about flood solutions and turnpike revenue?

The Record's editorial today acknowledges the paper's past support for ending blue-law shopping restrictions in Bergen County -- absent from yesterday's news story. But can't you just see the Borgs salivating over all that possible new ad revenue, especially in view of what some observers are calling a financially ill-advised abandonment of Hackensack -- phyiscally and editorially.

There is really bad news in Local, where proposed cuts in state aid to school districts are listed on L-3. Rich districts like Ridgewood, Tenafly and Alpine would get no aid, but middle-class districts are calling the plan disastrous.

Will cutting 24% percent help Englewood desegregate its elementary and middle schools -- or does it even have such a plan? That's a story Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano and her clueless assignment editor have ignored.

Eight reporters contributed to the story on school aid, but Hackensack (-28%) , Teaneck (-59%) and Englewood officials aren't quoted. Did the Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck reoprters call in sick? In contrast to their lack of productivity, a single staffer reported and wrote three expanded local obituaries in today's paper.

If you're looking for Publisher Stephen A. Borg's highly touted "every day" coverage of food in Better Living, you won't find any today, as is the case Thursdays and most Saturdays. Mondays will get you a single recipe for vegetarians -- about the only concession to that lifestyle I have seen in the food pages in the past few years. At least the house ad claiming the paper provides such seven-day food coverage hasn't appeared for many months.