OK, so I'm a day late.  This story is one that I still find hysterical, regardless of how many time I tell it.

For those who don't know, the Jersey Shore is teeming with people from Northern New Jersey and New York during the summer.  The term we use is Benny. Some think of it as a derogatory term, others as a term of endearment.  I used it to identify.  No worse than saying, the kid with red hair.

 

There is some debate about the origin of the word, but here are the 2 definitions used most frequently:

1. Bums Exiting Newark and New York
2. Bayonne Elizabeth Newark New York

In case you are not sure, Bayonne, Elizabeth and Newark are cities in North Jersey. 

Anyway, the history of the Benny is not important to the story, only that it involved a Benny.

To give some more background, when the wether gets warms, throngs of Bennies descend on the Jersey Shore every weekend.  The only route that takes you there is the Garden State Parkway.  On Friday evenings, the Parkway becomse a parking lot heading South.  On Sunday afternoon, it becomes a parking lot headed North.

This story takes place on a Sunday night in the summer.  I remember this because it was really late, there was not much traffic on the Parkway, and it involved a boat.

We got a call for a motor vehicle accident on the northbound lanes of the Parkway, near exit 91.  We were pretty close, and actually were the first emergency services personell on scene.  The police had not yet arrived. 

What we saw was pretty funny.  There was a boat on the right shoulder, sticking out into the right hand lane of the Parkway.  From where we parked the medic truck, we could not see the truck that was towing the boat.  It had flipped over (which caused the boat to become detached from the trailer) and rolled down an embankment.  The driver of the truck, a benny, who was not injured, was in the boat, trying to check and see how badly the boat had been damaged.

After several minutes, a New Jersey State Trooper arrived on-scene.  As is typical, he got out of his car, put on his hat, and,as he was walking to the boat, I could tell he was analyzing the accident scene.  A he approached the boat, the owner of the boat jumped down from the boat to meet him.  The trooper stopped, looked the guy straight in the eye, and with a dead-pan voice, asked: 'Son, exactly how fast were you going when you hit land?'

All of us, including the trooper, and the guy who just totaled his truck and his boat, laughed for about 15 minutes.  I still chuckle when I think of this one....hell, I am gigling now.