--- title: Chris Christie Bridge Scandal: Locals Say It Blocked First Responders description: An EMS official warned the local mayor that the traffic was slowing down response times canonical: https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-09T13:43:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:12:36.021Z article:section: Politics og:title: Chris Christie Bridge Scandal: Locals Say It Blocked First Responders og:description: An EMS official warned the local mayor that the traffic was slowing down response times og:url: https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chris Christie Bridge Scandal: Locals Say It Blocked First Responders twitter:description: An EMS official warned the local mayor that the traffic was slowing down response times twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Officials Say Christie Bridge Scandal Hampered Emergency Responders > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jan 9, 2014 1:43 PM UTC  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jan 9, 2014 1:43 PM UTC It wasn’t just [petty politics](http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-gets-caught-in-traffic/), it was [dangerous](http://www.northjersey.com/fortlee/GWB%5Femails%5FChristie%5FFort%5Flee%5Fmayor.html). That’s what local officials in New Jersey said about lane closures last year on the busiest bridge in America, lane closures that snarled traffic for days in a town near New York City and were [revealed Wednesday](http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-bridge-closure-emails-2016/) to be part of a political revenge plot pushed by top aides to Gov. Chris Christie. The scandal has hurt the 2016 presidential hopes of Christie, who said late Wednesday that he was [misled by aides](http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-outraged-at-staffs-role-in-traffic-scandal/) about the issue and is set to hold a news conference Thursday morning. In a Sept. 10 letter obtained by the [_Record_](http://www.northjersey.com/fortlee/GWB%5Femails%5FChristie%5FFort%5Flee%5Fmayor.html) newspaper in New Jersey, EMS Coordinator Paul E. Favia told Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich that emergency crews took more than twice as long to respond to some cases and said that paramedics were delayed in reaching a 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest. In another instance, he said he was forced to jump a curb to circumvent traffic and reach a car accident with multiple injuries. “I would like to bring this to your attention as this new traffic pattern is causing unnecessary delays for emergency services to arrive on scene for medical emergencies within the borough,” Favia wrote in the letter. Documents that surfaced Wednesday suggested that members of Christie’s administration — which initially attributed the delays to a mishandled traffic study — deliberately shuttered lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge after Sokolich, a Democrat, wouldn’t endorse Christie, a Republican, in his ultimately successful reelection bid. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff, wrote in an Aug. 13 email, shortly after Sokolich declined to back Christie. “What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” Christie said in a statement late Wednesday. “I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.” Sokolich said on CNN late Wednesday that he had tried to no avail to plead with the governor’s office for help while his town turned into a veritable parking lot for four days. “Who would possibly reduce themselves to closing lanes to the busiest bridge in the world, putting my town in harm’s way?” Sokolich said. “He has to publicly address the folks that are specifically impacted by this. I think apologies need to be doled out.” “You have intentionally put people in harm’s way,” he said. \[[_The Record_](http://www.northjersey.com/fortlee/GWB%5Femails%5FChristie%5FFort%5Flee%5Fmayor.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/"},"headline":"Officials Say Christie Bridge Scandal Hampered Emergency Responders","datePublished":"2014-01-09T13:43:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:12:36.021Z","description":"An EMS official warned the local mayor that the traffic was slowing down response times","url":"https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/","keywords":["Chris Christie","New Jersey"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/315/officials-say-christie-bridge-scandal-hampered-emergency-responders/","name":"Officials Say Christie Bridge Scandal Hampered Emergency Responders"}}]}] ```