Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

 1952, November 7 - Crossing Accident at Britannia, CPR, Carleton Place sub., no injuries

Ottawa Citizen 7 November 1952 Probing Crash at Britannia Investigation Into last night's express-truck crash at Britannia on Highway 17 will be carried out through the assistant superintendent's office at Smiths Falls, Canadian Pacific Railway officials said this morning. The Ottawa CPR superintendent's office said that as yet they had received no official report on the accident and sg could make no comment. They added, however: "The accident occured ln the territory which is controlled by the assistant superintendent at Smiths Falls and an investigation will be launched through that office." Jumping clear of his stalled (sic) Earl Sadler jumped clear of his stalled truck seconds before a fast CPR. passenger train struck it and wrecked it completely. Just In Time Sadler, who had been travelling west on Highway 17, told police his truck stalled on the track. He saw the train, which was heading out of Ottawa, coming at the truck out of the misty rain and managed to leap clear in time. The train smashed into the three-ton vehicle and hurled it more than 100 feet from the roadway. The body and frame were twisted grotesquely at right angles to each other, the engine was flung five feet away from the body and the heavy dual rear wheels remained be side the roadway. The train stopped only briefly so that the crew could discover what damage had been caused and injuries inflicted, if any. It continued on its way before the police arrived. It was understood the reason for this was that the line is heavily travelled and rail traffic would have been held up if the train had remained for investigating officers. The lights of two police cars attracted many car drivers travelling the highway, who stopped to render any assistance necessary to possible injured persons. The crossing, which is equipped with a wig-wag signal, has been the scene of numerous train - car and train - truck accidents. Constables B. M. Goetz, Gordon McDonnell and Cpl. Carl Johns of the Ontario Provincial Police investigated.

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Updated 13 October 2019