HOBOKEN — Early Saturday morning, a 23-year-old Las Vegas resident was rescued from the Hudson River off Pier C on Hoboken’s waterfront after witnesses called 911 to say a man had jumped in the river.
Police told NJ.com that the man’s friend told them he was highly intoxicated.
According to the story, “After his rescue, [the man] told officers he jumped in because he was hot and thought he could climb back up, the police sergeant said.”
The man was found clinging to the pier’s support beams.
The man was “issued a citation for swimming in a river abutting the boundaries of a park,” according to the story.
The Hudson River near the Hoboken shore has a dangerous undertow that has claimed several victims, sometimes even despite police being on the scene.
In recent years, the city has stepped up safety measures.
A little over a year ago, a 27-year-old Hoboken resident, Andrew Jarzyk, was missing for a month after he took a 2 a.m. jog around Pier A. He had been drinking at a bar/restaurant in town with his friends before the run. His body was found a month later floating in the water. Toxicology tests showed an alcohol level more than twice what would be the legal limit to drive.
A month before that incident, a man was pulled from the river near Pier C after he was heard calling for help. He claimed to police that three men had thrown him in. However, the police were unable to verify the story, and the man refused to speak to them afterwards, they said.
Across the country, there have been reports of intoxicated men of college age and in their twenties ending up in bodies of water after a night of partying with friends, particularly in the Midwest. One interesting column looking at the trend can be read here by clicking the link.
Hoboken, a mile-square city across the river from New York City full of dozens of bar/restaurants, has become a more and more popular place for young people to spend Friday and Saturday evenings.
For related stories, see links below.
Apparently intoxicated man jumps into Hudson River in Hoboken
