Mary Lou Baez lets herself go crazy.

In fact, it is one of the worst cases of red tape I have seen in a long time.

A colossal run. And a total failure of someone. But who?

The mess involves two government agencies, a road contractor who was fired by the state, the contractor’s insurance company and the firm that is supposed to cover the state when a contractor fails to safely complete a job. Nobody wants to take responsibility.

Baez was gone for about a day in April. When he pulled his car into a mall Route 206 in Hillsboroughhe heard a loud scratching noise.

“The result was some deep scratches on the bumper,” Baez, 64, said. “My car is only four months old. Plus I’m worried about rust and other possible damage.”

Repairs would cost $1,900, one estimate said.

That area of Road 206, which has been under a $41 million federally funded road widening project for years, was a nightmare for drivers, local business and for transport authorities almost since it started.

The contract for the project, between Doctors Way and Valley Road, was awarded in 2020 to Konkus Corporation of Branchburg. Completion was set for May 2024, but it is way behind schedule.

The work lay dormant for 15 months thereafter the contractor was canned. He restarted last summer with a new contractor and a new hope that everything will go well.

Before we throw you into this absurd adventure — which would actually be comical if it weren’t so pathetic — understand that Baez doesn’t want to file a claim with her own insurance company.

“They said I had to pay the deductible ($1,000) and my policy would go up,” Baez said. “I can’t do that.”

Enter the bureaucracy and on the run,

After the incident, Baez called Hillsborough City Hall. He directed her to the local engineer’s office, who directed her to the Department of Transportation (DOT), who directed her to the Department of the Treasury, who will handle applications for the DOT.

Told him to get an estimate from a body shop, take pictures and send it all over.

She did all that, but then the Treasury got a new message: Konkus Corp., the contractor that had been fired for “safety violations,” was in trouble.

“(The subpoena) does not deny that they are the ones who created the dangerous condition,” a Treasury official told Baez in an email. “As such, they are still responsible.”

It said there was a clause in Konkus’ contract that said the contractor would be responsible for incidents like what happened to Baez.

Konkus, by the way, is now suing the state over his dismissal.

Baez also asked Sen. Andrew Zwicker, D-Middlesex, for help. His office’s research agreed with the Treasury Department

“The contract between the state and the company contained a hold harmless clause that required the contractor to have liability insurance to protect his company and the state, and the coverage was in effect on the date of the occurrence,” Zwicker’s office said in an email. -mail to Baez.

A flurry of emails to Konkus followed, during which Baez sent the documentation multiple times, and several times, no substantive responses were ever provided.

Somewhere along the line, someone filed a claim with Konkus’ insurance company, CNA. It was rejected on June 11.

“(The CNA representative) said he just spoke to an “Ashley” from Konkus Construction who advised him that “at the time, we were not the contractors on site,” Baez said he was told.

So now what?

At the state’s suggestion, Baez paid the $42 court fee and filed a small claims case against Konkus in late October. The company has 60 days to respond.

When I asked the state to review all the updates, he had a new realization. Several workers believed Baez’s injuries occurred on April 23, 2023 — two days before Konkus was fired from his job.

But it actually happened on that date in 2024, a year later. That meant almost a year had passed since the contractor was released. It was months before anyone noticed the mistake.

This brought a new opinion.

“We recently received an update from the Department of Transportation stating that they have informed you through a third party reporter that since the contractor has been removed from the project and both the contractor and the insurance carrier have denied your claim ., you should submit your claim to the Underwriter, who is responsible for ensuring that the project is completed,” it said.

“A surety insurance carrier, also known as a surety company, is an insurance company that provides a guarantee that a third party will fulfill its obligations,” it said, and gave Baez a contact there .

So he began another round of e-mails with a representative of Berkley Insurance Company, the underwriter of the project. After Baez resubmitted his paperwork, the first hint of bad news came in an email.

A Berkley representative said that because the state said Konkus created the unsafe condition, it wasn’t clear the surety should be liable.

Soon after, the death knell: Berkeley said he was not responsible.

“As collateral, (Berkley) has a performance obligation to NJDOT to complete Konkus’ work, not for property damage to third parties,” it said.

I asked the DOT if they could finally put an end to this run.

And something finally changed. We don’t know exactly who spoke to who, but the DOT has assured us that Baez’s application will be processed with a positive outcome for her.

I told Baez the promise.

“I feel like it’s almost too little too late because all we got from the beginning was negativity, frustration and embarrassment for all parties involved – especially the state – for their denials, misinformation – who was responsible and in what AN- events happened and telling me to sue Konkus in small claims court,” Baez said. “I’m happier today, but pretty emotionally drained.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on what happens next to make sure the promises are kept.