The Chris Christie Lane Closing Scandal Caused Slower Response Times For Emergency Vehicles

Ed Yourdon, Wikimedia CommonsThe September lane closures on the George Washington Bridge delayed emergency responders in four situations, according to records obtained by the Bergen Record - including one in which a 91-year-old woman died.

According to the Record, EMS coordinator Paul Favia wrote in a Sept. 10 letter to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich (D) that response times doubled in two of the cases.

Whereas it normally takes about four minutes to respond, it took EMS seven minutes to respond to the situation involving an unconscious 91-year-old woman. She later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Favia, however, did not say that the woman's death was directly due to the delays.

The news comes the same day new documents showed that staff in the administration of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was involved in the decisions to close the traffic lanes - possibly in retaliation against a Sokolich, who did not endorse Christie for re-election.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Christie said he was "outraged" at the new information, and suggested he had been misled by a staffer about their role in the situation.