TODAY IN HISTORY
Copy photo of a Newark Evening News front page article about the train crash into Newark Bay . On Sept. 15, 1958, a commuter train left Bay Head at 8:27 a.m., carrying dozens of people to a routine day of work in New York.
It never made it, instead plowing through three stop signals and plunging off a partially open drawbridge into Newark Bay, killing 48 people aboard. Among the dead were three crew members and 45 passengers, including former Yankees second baseman George (Snuffy) Stirnweiss and then-Shrewsbury Mayor John Hawkins.
The horrific crash, one of the worst in the nation's history, baffled state investigators who found no evidence of mechanical failure in the train's brakes or the railroad's signals. They theorized the engineer may have had a heart attack before the train veered off the drawbridge, which connected Elizabeth and Bayonne.
Following the tragedy, the state required that all locomotives operated in New Jersey be equipped with so-called "dead-man's" controls that automatically stop the train if hand pressure on the throttle is released.
As for the Newark Bay bridge, most passenger trains quit using it altogether in 1967, when what is now the New Jersey Coast Line was rerouted into Newark Penn Station. The drawbridge was torn down more than two decades ago.
- The New Jersey Historical Commission contributed to this report.