This Day in History: 1935-02-01

A coasting accident landed an eighteen-year-old Scotch boy in the Good Samaritan Hospital very near death.  George Sheivers, the son of the head gardener at the Birch Estate ran into a car driven by Alfred Marks, a Suffern carpenter.  Marks had picked up Mary Wanamaker from her job at the Waterman home on Oweno Rd.  He had stopped at the intersection of Airmount and Owneo to wait for a group of coasters.  When he thought that the road was clear, he crossed it only to be struck in the rear by Sheiver’s sled.  The young man got up and was clutching his chest holding onto the spare tire at the rear of Mark’s car.  Marks took him to Dr. Liddy’s house only to find him not at home.  Neither was Dr. Stone in Suffern, so Marks took Seivers to the hospital where he was treated by Dr. Moses.  He was found to be suffering from four broken ribs and a punctured lung.  The reporter for the Ramsey Journal lamented the fact that so many children coasted on so dangerous a road, and asked that some public-spirited privy individual open his grounds to coasters so that they could play without the dangers of operating on a public street.  Since there were no subsequent news items on the young man’s condition we can presume that he recovered.

(Bristow)