This Day in History: 1958-08-10

Emergency services were fully involved in assisting the victims of a major wreck on the Erie Railroad. A head-on collision of a westbound mail train and an eastbound train, No. 50, shifted to the westbound tracks because of a freight train on the eastbound tracks, resulted in five deaths and injuries to nearly 40 passengers and crewmen. The accident, blamed on a failure of the towerman in the Suffern yards, occurred at the old Sterlington Station between Hillburn and Sloatsburg. That loss of life was not greater was because of the prompt work of the more than twenty rescue and ambulance squads including those from Mahwah, Ramsey, Allendale, and Upper Saddle River. Four Ramsey doctors and one from Mahwah also assisted at the scene. The accident took place at about 6:50 am. The first patient, the conductor of the westbound train, arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital at 7:05. By the time most of the doctors arrived at the scene at 8:00 am there was nothing to do. All injured patients had been treated or taken to either Good Samaritan or Tuxedo Hospitals. Dr. R. W. Delaphaine, of Mahwah, said there were too many doctors and ambulances at the site. Some better estimation of the scope of the disaster should have been made before so many were called. Sister Miriam Thomas, the Administrator of the Good Samaritan Hospital, however, had nothing but praise for the cooperative spirit shown by both doctors and ambulances, and for the extra help received from the Nyack and Valley Hospitals, and firms in Teterboro and Bethlehem Pennsylvania which made their private planes available in the emergency to transport patients who wished to be treated at their home hospitals. (Bristow)