Trucks were a huge part of Anthony Jackson’s life.
He drove them across the country as a a career, and operated them for more than 40 years as a volunteer firefighter in his New Jersey community,
That’s why it was particularly shocking to his family and loved ones when he died in a tanker truck crash early Tuesday morning on the New Jersey Turnpike in Milltown, Middlesex County. He was 60 years old. Jackson, a native of Pedricktown in Oldmans Township, Salem County, knew fairly early in life that he wanted to drive trucks and fight fires.
He joined the Pedricktown Fire Co. as a junior firefighter at 16 years old, and was serving as an assistant fire chief for the company at the time of his death. Other firefighters mourned him as a mentor to younger members of the company.
“He loved the fire company and always wanted to be a truck driver,” his wife Arlene said.