Corzine to return to work on Monday

TRENTON - New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine - critically injured in an April 12 car crash - will resume his official duties after the weekend, a spokesman said today.

"The governor expects to return to work on Monday," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said .

Corzine was injured in a crash along the Garden State Parkway that left him with a broken left leg, 11 broken ribs, a broken collarbone and sternum, among other injuries.

He spent 18 days in Cooper University Hospital in Camden, much of it in intensive care. He underwent three surgeries on his leg and needed to use a ventilator to breathe for more than a week.

Senate President Richard J. Codey has been acting governor since the accident.

Corzine was released from the hospital last Monday and has been rehabilitating at the governor's mansion in Princeton, where he's expected to work until he has recovered enough to return to the Statehouse in Trenton.

At the time of the crash, Corzine's SUV was traveling at 91 m.p.h. in a 65 m.p.h. zone just north of Atlantic City, heading to a meeting at the governor's mansion in Princeton.

The meeting was with just-fired radio show host Don Imus and the members of the Rutgers women's basketball team, about racially insensitive comments made by Imus.

The Democratic governor's SUV was clipped by a pickup truck and slammed into a guard rail. The pickup had swerved to avoid another vehicle that was trying to get out of the way of the governor's SUV.

Corzine wasn't wearing his seat belt, as required by state, but he voluntarily paid a $46 fine and apologized to the state.

"I'll work very hard to try to set the right kind of example to make a difference in people's lives as we go forward," he said as he left the hospital on Monday.