The City of Jersey City has released closed-circuit television footage of Councilwoman-at-Large Amy DeGise’s hit-and-run incident from one week ago.
The two roughly three-minute videos come from CCTV camera on Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street, respectively.
A black SUV is traveling east on Forrest Street and a bicyclist, Andrew Black, is going south on Martin Luther King Drive around 8 a.m. on July 19th. Black runs the red light, the car hits him, briefly knocking him off his feet, and continues without stopping, footage shows.
Black, who told HudPost earlier today that he had a green light when the incident took place, runs a red light before the crash. He then sits on a water cooler in front of the Willie L. Flood Way street sign before making calls on his cell phone.
The New Jersey Globe obtained and posted the video first.
DeGise, elected to the city council in November as a part of Mayor Steven Fulop’s ticket, has not addressed the incident beyond saying that she is glad no one was seriously hurt and that she wouldn’t comment further due to the pending court case.
She received summonses for for leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report an accident.
During an interview on NJ Spotlight News last night, Fulop said that DeGise should not have left the scene, as well as that the CCTV footage should be released as soon as possible – as Bike JC and Safe Streets JC already had.
” … Yeah, I think the sooner the better [to release the footage]. If it was a unilateral decision from me, I would’ve released it already, but that’s not the way the process works,” he said.
The city did not make it clear if they considered Open Public Records Act requests fulfilled in light of the videos being released.