Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1956, July 14 - Crossing accident Britannia, CPR Carleton Place sub., three fatalities

From the Ottawa Citizen 16 July 1956 Britannia Villagers Shocked as Smashup Raises death Toll Residents of Britannia Village today were still shocked by the accident which took the lives of three village teen-agers Saturday morning when their borrowed new car collided with a west bound train at the Britannia Road crossing. They were the fifth, sixth and seventh Village teenagers to have met violent death in traffic accidents since June 5. Roderick Clarke, 151, 141 Britannia Road and Andrew Benkis, 17, 5 Zephyr Street, were killed instantly when the fast-moving pool train sheared off the front part of a new car the boys had borrowed for a drive. Whistle Unheard The locomotive hit during a driving rainstorm. The boys apparently did not hear the train whistle. - - - Blew Whistle Chester Shellhorn, of 2 Wellington Street. Carlcton Place, engineer on the pool train, said he blew the train's whistle as he saw the car approaching the crossing. But he said he did not see the actual collision.  A flashing wig-wag signal is reported to have been in operation when the speeding train approached. Bill Waddell later told The Citizen he believed the car radio was on at the time of the accident. - - -

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Updated 14 November 2019