Peter R. Matthews fell backward and hit his head while snowboarding at the American Dream mall with his sister, Sarah Matthews. She is a registered nurse and began performing CPR along with emergency workers on-site.
He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where he later died. The exact cause of death is unclear, but appears to be directly related to the fall sustained.
Peter R. Matthews was twenty-four and had been working as an Airman First class. His goal was to become a pilot, like his father. He even earned the Air Force Achievement Medal.
“Peter was genuinely an amazing person, and his smile lit up the room. If you had a chance to talk to him, you knew instantly he had a remarkable future and was destined for greatness,” U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jeffrey Golabiewski said.
While an accident of this magnitude has not been common at the American Dream mall, it is just the latest in a decades-long struggle for the mall to establish itself as the entertainment and retail powerhouse that it sought to become. In 2021, the mall reported an almost 60-million-dollar loss. The American Dream Mall lauds Big Snow as “America’s only indoor, year-round, real-snow ski and snowboard resort.”
COVER PHOTO: Stroller in the City