{"id":657,"date":"2007-12-18T14:15:26","date_gmt":"2007-12-18T20:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=657"},"modified":"2007-12-18T14:15:26","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T20:15:26","slug":"wipe-up-your-own-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Wipe Up Your Own Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oh, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/seven\/12172007\/news\/regionalnews\/nj_adds_insult_to_injury_840039.htm\">man<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>New Jersey authorities sent a &#8220;disgraceful and obscene&#8221; notice to two grieving families &#8211; a lawsuit against them and their four loved ones killed in a terrible crash for damage the victims allegedly caused to the Turnpike.<\/p>\n<p>The negligence suit, filed by lawyer William B. Ziff on behalf of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, demanded money from both the Ryan and Christmas families, who lost relatives &#8211; including a toddler &#8211; in a horrific August 2006 crash on the Turnpike near Teaneck.<\/p>\n<p>The crash occurred after a tractor-trailer with bad brakes, carrying bricks and traveling at 70 mph, plowed into stalled traffic, smashing into a car driven by Theresa Christmas, 41.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas was killed, as was her husband, Charles, 40, and daughter Victoria, 2, sources said. Another daughter, baby Theresa, survived the crash.<\/p>\n<p>The truck then hit a car driven by Norma Ryan, 37, who also was killed.<\/p>\n<p>All three dead adults, along with relatives, were named in the Turnpike Authority&#8217;s lawsuit seeking money for damage to the road&#8217;s infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is disgraceful and obscene,&#8221; said lawyer Jeffrey Lisabeth, who represents Norma Ryan&#8217;s grieving husband, Allan Ryan, of Voorhees, NJ. The husband is suing the truck driver and others over his wife&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mrs. Ryan must have bled on the roadway surface while she was being crushed by tons of bricks, and they want to charge her husband for the cleanup?&#8221; Lisabeth said.<\/p>\n<p>The suit is &#8220;the most outrageous thing I have seen in a long time,&#8221; said lawyer Sam Davis, who represents orphaned crash survivor little Theresa Christmas, now 2, and her relatives in a separate civil suit against the truck driver and others.<\/p>\n<p>After The Post called about the lawsuit, Ziff rushed out to Union County Superior Court and canceled it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It should not have happened,&#8221; said NJTA spokesman Joe Orlando. &#8220;It was a clerical error. We would like to apologize to the family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the action now prevents any future claims from being brought by the authority against the truck driver, who officials say caused the deadly crash, as well as his firm.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, money that may have been recovered for taxpayers will not be collected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Your government at work. Nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh, man. New Jersey authorities sent a &#8220;disgraceful and obscene&#8221; notice to two grieving families &#8211; a lawsuit against them and their four loved ones killed in a terrible crash for damage the victims allegedly caused to the Turnpike. The negligence suit, filed by lawyer William B. Ziff on behalf of the New Jersey Turnpike &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/?p=657\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Wipe Up Your Own Blood<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-and-order"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BzKF-aB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelsiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}