Editors encourage abuse of law-abiding drivers

Friday evening's soggy commute on the New Jersey Turnpike south, near Newark Liberty International Airport, dramatizes mounting traffic congestion in North Jersey -- an issue that bores editors of The Record and Staff Writer John Cichowski. When traffic isn't backed up, speeding is epidemic.



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

In columns on Friday and Wednesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski allowed dangerously aggressive drivers to vent about those who obey the speed limit, but don't stay to the right, a minor annoyance to most others.

The irresponsible Road Warrior quoted a couple of the morons who e-mail him endlessly, hoping to see their names in print, as calling drivers who stay in the left lane "selfish swine" and "brain-dead idiots."

But it is the reporter who is brain dead for blaming fatal accidents on so-called road hogs -- when everyone knows it is the aggressive drivers who trigger the crashes by tailgating and cutting off slower cars.

Speeding, tailgating and other aggressive driving is epidemic on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Route 80 and other roads.

These drivers love to thumb their nose at the state police, whose smaller numbers have led to a dramatic decline in enforcement -- a story the lazy Cichowski hasn't told.

Today's paper

The lead story on Page 1 today explains how Michael McMorrow, the deputy police chief in Englewood Cliffs, is legally holding up residents, who have to fork over $103,295 for his unpaid comp time (A-1).

The Local front carries another story about Hackensack, this one on the planned completion of a senior center on First Street (L-1).

The Record seems to be paying more attention to the city where it was founded and where it prospered for more than 110 years since June 24.

That's when North Jersey Media Group announced it is selling about 20 acres along River Street to a developer who plans to build high-end apartments, stores and, possibly, a hotel.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg didn't say how much NJMG will receive for the land or whether he will use part of the money to buy an ever bigger mansion.

Many of the stories have been about the reform City Council slate that was sworn in on July 1.

Mailing it in

In his wildly exaggerated Page 1 column on July 9, Cichowski suggested a GWB toll both be marked "CASH CUSTOMERS BILLED BY MAIL," but forgot to say that if a driver without an E-ZPass doesn't stop for an envelope, a $50 fine would be assessed.

There were numerous other problems, according to a concerned reader, who e-mailed the editors and management about another deeply flawed column. 

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