4 KILLED, 8 HURT IN AUTO ACCIDENTS

The New York Times
December 2, 1922

Paterson Man Loses Life When Hit by Train—Three Others Die From Injuries.

Four deaths occurred yesterday as the result of automobile accidents in the metropolitan district—two of them Thanksgiving day mishaps. Eight others were injured.

Ferdinand D. Rickborn, a Paterson, N. J. grocer, was killed instantly when his automobile truck was demolished last evening by an Erie train on the Clay Street crossing in Paterson. According to witnesses, the gates were partially down, but Rickborn apparently believed he had time to cross. He was directly in the path of a west bound train when it struck him.

Following the death yesterday of Salvatore Celomento, 21, of 134 West Twentieth Street, Bayonne, from injuries received Wednesday when an automobile in which he was riding struck a truck. Patrick Campbell, driver of the automobile, was held without bail for the Grand Jury on a charge of homicide. Campbell, Celemento and two others were returning from a wedding party when the accident occurred.

James Williamson, 22, a chauffeur, of 656 East Sixteenth Street, whose skull was fractured when he drove his car over a 80-foot embankment into the street car cut at Forty-second Street and First Avenue Wednesday, died in Bellevue Hospital.

Mrs. Mary Seifert, 69, of 354 East 125th Street, died after she had both legs amputated at Flower Hospital. She had been run over by a truck last evening in Third Avenue, near Fifty-third Street. The truck was driven by Jacob Turner, 25, of 43 East Eighty-sixth Street, and is owned by Simmerman Brothers of 157 East 108th Street. Turner helped carry the woman to a taxicab, in which she was taken to the hospital.

Five persons were attended at Staten Island Hospital last night following a collision between a municipal trolley car and an automobile truck at Broad and Gordon Streets, Stapleton. The car was going in the direction of the St. George ferry on the southbound track when the truck, driven by Edward J. O'Hara of 278 Seaview Avenue, Donegan Hills, came out a side street. The trolley car was derailed and the fifteen occupants were thrown from their seats.

The most seriously injured were Antonio Garibaldi, 75, of New Dorp, whose right arm was broken; Mildred Greeder, 23, of 140 eBach Street, Stapleton, who suffered scalp wounds; John O'Hara, 5-year-old son of the truck driver, who also had his right arm broken, and Fred Fisher, motorman of the car, who sustained cuts on his face and scalp.

According to the report of the National Highways Protective Society, 160 persons met their death in automobile accidents in the State of New York during the month of November. In New York City during the last month automobiles caused the deaths of 86 persons, 21 more than during November, 1921. Trolley cars killed four and wagons one.

A total of 4,963 cases were heard in Traffic Court during the month of November, making the year's total 46,854 cases, which is 6,663 more than for the same period of last year, and more than for any other 11 months since this court was opened in June, 1916.