New Jersey ? New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will be released from the hospital this afternoon, 18 days after he was critically injured in an auto accident, a spokesman said Sunday night.

Corzine had predicted last week he would be out on Tuesday or Wednesday; doctors had said today would be his earliest release date.

Legislators who visited him last week marveled at his robust condition. On Saturday, Corzine, who broke his left thighbone, breastbone, collarbone and 11 ribs, graduated from a walker to forearm crutches – “an amazing step for someone with his injuries,” his spokesman Anthony Coley said.

The governor was on a ventilator for more than a week after the April 12 accident, in which his state-police-driven SUV crashed on the Garden State Parkway. Corzine was not wearing his seat belt but has not been cited. His vehicle was going 91 mph at the time of the crash.