The Pine Lake Park crossing deaths

The collision

Ackerley, 60, and Prauzettel, 58, both lived in Pine Lake Park near Toms River and were traveling in a light pickup to a road job. At the Lacey Road crossing shortly before 9 a.m., the truck and a Pennsylvania Railroad train traveling from Toms River toward Philadelphia collided. Early reporting said the truck skidded into the train’s side; a later account said the locomotive struck it and carried it about 60 feet before the vehicle fell beside the tracks on top of the men. A railroad report suggested the pickup may first have overturned on the crossing, but investigators had not confirmed that version because the train continued to Camden.

Ackerley, a former grocer and retired New York bank employee, had recently been selected as secretary for Manchester Township’s coming school-board election. Whiting residents identified him; Prauzettel was identified through his driver’s license. Both died at the scene. The locomotive sustained slight damage and the truck was destroyed.

Police identified the engineer as Benjamin O. Longstreet of Silverton and conductor George Jones of Camden. County Detective Charles Feeney and state troopers Victor Kondrup, Francis Boyer, and Walter Furnesson of the Toms River barracks investigated.