Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1059_e2p3.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

“there would be a substantial risk of sideswipe crashes” in-
volving cars coming into the area from different directions. 
Id., at 284 (Wildstein testimony).  So Wildstein went back 
to Baroni and Kelly and got their approval to keep one lane
reserved for Fort Lee traffic.  That solution, though, raised
another  complication.  Ordinarily,  if  a  toll  collector  on  a 
Fort Lee lane has to take a break, he closes his booth, and 
drivers use one of the other two lanes.  Under the one-lane 
plan,  of  course,  that  would  be  impossible.    So  the  Bridge
manager told Wildstein that to make the scheme work, “an 
extra toll collector” would always have to be “on call” to re-
lieve the regular collector when he went on break.  Id., at 
303.  Once  again,  Wildstein  took  the  news  to  Baroni  and 
Kelly.  Baroni thought it was “funny,” remarking that “only
at the Port Authority would [you] have to pay a toll collector
to just sit there and wait.”  Ibid.  Still, he and Kelly gave 
the okay. 

The plan was now ready, and on September 9 it went into
effect.  Without  advance  notice  and  on  the  (traffic-heavy)
first day of school, Port Authority employees placed traffic 
cones two lanes further to the right than usual, restricting 
cars from Fort Lee to a single lane.  Almost immediately,
the  town’s  streets  came  to  a  standstill.    According  to  the
Fort  Lee  Chief  of  Police,  the  traffic  rivaled  that  of  9/11,
when  the  George  Washington  Bridge  had  shut  down. 
School buses stood in place for hours.  An ambulance strug-
gled to reach the victim of a heart attack; police had trouble 
responding to a report of a missing child.  Mayor Sokolich
tried to reach Baroni, leaving a message that the call was
about an “urgent matter of public safety.”  Id., at 323.  Yet 
Baroni failed to return that call or any other: He had agreed
with Wildstein and Kelly that they should all maintain “ra-
dio silence.”  Id., at 270.  A text from the Mayor to Baroni
about the locked-in school buses—also unanswered—went 
around the horn to Wildstein and Kelly.  The last replied: