The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-12-24
ERICKSON A HERO
Jersey City's Senior Fire
Commissioner Bravely
Sticks to His Post.
HIS ENGINE IN COLLISION
Plows Into a Freight Train
But He Stays in the Cab
While Fireman
Jumps.
HIS ENGINE IN COLLISION


John Erickson, Fire Commissioner of
is of the stuff Of which genuine heroes
are made. He is an engineer on the Cen
tral New Jersey Railroad and runs the
fast Atlantic City express. Rather than
desert his post he bodily faced death and
stuck to his engine when it crashed into
a freight train near Mattewan yesterday.
He went through two minutes of nerve
racking expectation, as his train bore
down upon another: then thirty seconds
of crash and tear and fearful din; and
when hundred white-faced men hocked
about the locomotive which had come to
a e,tandstill off the rails, they found him,
not dead, as they had expected, but still
with his hand upon the lever.
Erickson's train was the Atlantic City
special on the Jersey Central. leaving
Jersey City at $40 A. NJ. The collision
occurred at the junction of the main line
to Long Branch with the road from Free
hold to Atlantic Highlands. The cross
ing is several hundred yards south of the
station there. The special makes no stop
at Mattewan. 1t rounded the curve OPP
posite the station at it's highest speed.
1t is supposed that Erickson understood
the signals to mean that he had a clear
track.
He was only hundred feet from the
crossing when he saw a freight tram
making for the junction at full headway.
A collision was unavoidable.
I'm going!'' cried Ericksons fireman,
and he leaped. spraining his ankle whell
he struck the ground.
4
rut on the air brakes, but the train went
grinding on With eyes staring wide he
saw the freight fifty feet away. then TWEEN
ty, then
Their he was battered back and forward,
and to either side, as his locomotive tore
through freight car, and the caboose be-
hind it. But always he kept his grip on
the lever.
The locomotive plowed from the tracks.
but stayed upright, and came to stop
beyond the wrecked freight. The passen-
gers had known nothing of the impending
disaster Their first intfmation came with
the crash and jar. Men were thrown from
their seats as the first car followed the
engine off tine tracks. There was panic, OF
course and wild scramble for the open
air There they saw the wrecked freight
cars. and realized how close they had been
to a great disaster.
The next thought was for the engineer.
A rush was made for his cab. He was
standing there at his post, and his first
words were:
Anybody hurt?"
Ii ever a man wa cheered that man was
John Erickson. Men offered money to
him He refused it.
You'll take it on Christmas. You can't
refuse then" shouted one man, and the
others joined in the promise implied in
that utterance. John Erickson is likely
to have an unusual stockingful.
While some of the passengers were
bruised when thrown from their seats,
only one man was injured seriously as a
result of the collision. and he was not
on the train He was John Mantilino. He
was at work repairing the tracks when
the trains came together. He was struck
by flying splinters and was injured SO
badly that it is feared he will die.
The express engine was smashed badly.
The first passenger coach was battered
also A wrecking train came soon after
the accident and trains were running on
regular schedule after three hours.
The Atlantic City special is the finest
train that the Central road runs through
to Lakewood and Atlantic City. 1t is a
vestibuled train and made up almost
wholly Of parlor coaches. Most of the
passengers were New Workers bound for
the winter resorts of South Jersey to
spend the holidays.