Official Proud He Stopped Intentional Traffic Jam

The Port Authority official who put a stop to politically motivated lane closures last fall said Thursday said he is proud of his actions and didn’t hesitate in taking them.

“I didn’t want someone dying in the back of an ambulance,” Patrick Foye said during a Q&A session hosted by The New York Observer and the law firm Cozen O’Connor. “I’m proud of the action I took. It was, frankly, a very easy, short decision.”

The September lane closures near the George Washington Bridge caused massive traffic backups in Fort Lee and eventually engulfed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration after it was revealed his allies ordered the closures, apparently for political retribution.

In a September email released as part of the legislative investigation, Foye angrily denounced the lane closures — which he said he wasn’t told about beforehand — and called them “ill-advised” and “abusive” and questioned whether they violated federal law. Two Port Authority officials resigned — David Wildstein, who orchestrated the closures in the guise of a traffic study, and Bill Baroni, Foye’s deputy.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the May 30th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.