Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1940, November 1 - Uncoupled caboose struck truck after train had passed

Ottawa Citizen  2 November 1940 Uncoupled caboose struck truck after train had passed Alexandria Nov.1. To be hit by a train because of a disregard for the danger signals is not uncommon fate, but to be hit by the caboose of a freight train after waiting until the train has passed and the wig-wag safety signal had stopped and the crossing was clear, is, from the point of view of two men who underwent this experience here this evening, an injustice. At 8.15 tonight a truck owned by Shepherd Brothers of Alexandria and occupied by Paul Dorey, driver, and Eli David, merchant, was entering the town on Highway 34.  The wig-wag signal at the railway crossing was operating; the truck stopped.  A long freight passed and the signal ceased.  Just as the front part of the truck was crossing the track it was struck by the caboose of the train which had become uncoupled and was travelling about 800 feet behind the rest of the train. Neither man was hurt.  When the railway crew, after stopping a short distance east of the town, backed up the train to retrieve the "wandering van" they found the caboose undamaged.  The truck, however, was damaged considerably.

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Updated January 2014