Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1931, June 24 - Crossing collision Pembroke, CPR., Chalk River sub., one dead, one injured.

Ottawa Citizen 24 June 1931 Ottawa Man Killed in Crash, Girl Badly Hurt Victor Bonnah, Aged 24, Was to Have Been Groomsman at Uncle's Wedding Today. Miss Freda McDonnel Lying in Critical State  Auto in Which They Were Riding Hit by Train Near Pembroke. PEMBROKE, Ont.J June 24. Victor Bormah, aged 24, an employe of the Ottawa Electric Company, Ottawa, was fatally injured and Miss Freda McDonnel, daughter of A. D. McDonnel, Cecilia street, Pembroke, nurse-in-training at the Pembroke General Hospital, is still unconscious following an automobile accident on the Pembroke-Ottawa highway about 3.25 this morning, when the light coupe in which they were traveling to Pembroke was struck by the west bound C.P.R. Soo express. Bonnah, who was driving, left Ottawa last night en route to Chapeau, [sic] Que., near Pembroke, where he was to have been groomsman this morning at the wedding of his uncle, John Dwyer, and was being accompanied to Pembroke by Miss McDonnel, who had been in Ottawa for some time completing her training at the Strathcona Hospital, end who was returning home to attend the funeral of the late Miss Mary Clark, a nurse who died at the General Hospital Tuesday. According to Dr. D. A. MacKercher, Cobden, the only eye-witness of the accident, he was traveling east from Pembroke approaching the railway crossing at Government Road, five miles east of the town. As he neared the crossing he noticed the lights of another car coming from the east and at the same time noticed the lights, and heard the whistle of the westbound C.P.R. Soo express. After halting his car until the train had passed he proceeded forward and was surprised to note the other car had apparently disappeared and turning back he discovered the remains of the coupe hurled to the station platform some 100 feet away while the two occupants had been thrown to the ground. Bonnah was suffering from broken limbs and a head injury while Miss McDonnel was also injured about the head, both being unconscious. The train had passed on without the crew being apparently aware of the accident. Awakening J. Lisk, a nearby farmer, Dr. MacKercher rushed the two accident victims to the Cottage Hospital, Pembroke, where Bonnah died within two hours and where Miss McDonnel still lies unconscious. Dr. P.C. Delahey will conduct a coroner's inquest with the preliminary sitting this morning. The scene of the accident is anything but a particularly dangerous level crossing as the lights of a westbound train should be easily noticeable when it is at least one-half mile from the crossing.

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Updated 23 January 2021