Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1930, May 23 - CPR employe killed at Breckenridge, CPR., Waltham sub.

Ottawa Journal 24 May 1930 Struck By Train Albert Fleming, 58 Is Fatally Injured C.P.R. Building Foreman Hurt Near Buckingham Dies In Civic Hospital-Inquest Is Opened. Struck by an east-bound passenger train at Brackenridge [sic]. five miles west of Aylmer on the Canadian Pacific Railway Waltham line, yesterday morning, Albert Fleming, 58, bridge and building foreman, living at 63 Spruce street, died at four o'clock in the afternoon in the Civic Hospital from the injuries he received. Mr. Fleming was in charge of a gang of workmen who were repairing a culvert a short distance west of the station at Brackenridge [sic]. Hearing the train approaching from the west Mr. Fleming cleared his men from the track and hurried to remove some of the materials which were obstructing the right of way. Was Lifting Plank. J. H. Hughes, divisional superintendent of the C.P.R., said Mr. Fleming stooped to lift one end of a plank off the rails. This plank was one serving as a runway for wheel-barrows carrying cement to the culvert. As Mr. Fleming bent over to remove the other and of the plank, the train, which was slowing down for Brackenridge [sic] station, struck his side, throwing him to one side. There were no witnesses of the accident as the engineer, Thomas Allen, 91 Preston street did not see Mr. Fleming until it was too late. Mr. Fleming's crew of seven men had stepped off to one side of the track while he had gone to the other, so that the train hid him from their sight. A. E. Wright, 181 Cameron avenue, was the conductor in charge of the train. The train crew placed Mr. Fleming on board the train, which was due at Brackenbridge  [sic] at 8.42 a.m.. and brought him to the city. From the train he was removed to the Civic Hospital. Three physicians. Dr. H. B. Church, of Aylmer; Dr. T. J. Scobie and Dr. L.G. Smith, were called to attend him. Ottawa Citizen 30 May 1930 Jury Returns Verdict Of Accidental Death Accidental death was the verdict returned by a coroner's jury last night at the police station, which investigated the death of Albert Fleming. 58 year-old Canadian Pacific Railway employe, who received fatal injuries on the morning of Friday, May 22, when he was struck by the fender of a Canadian Pacific train from Waltham to Ottawa, leaving Breckenridge station. Immediately following the accident Mr. Fleming was rushed to the Civic Hospital, where he succumbed to internal injuries. The witnesses who testified before Coroner R. M. Cairns. M.D., were, Thomas Allan, engineer, and James McCurry. fireman of the train; T. Martin, Edrnond Forcier and B. McCaffery, bridge men, who in their evidence said that they believed that Mr. Fleming, who was foreman of the maintenance of way gang, was struck by the train just as he walked across the track to pick up a stray tool.

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Updated 6 January 2021