Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1955, January 6 - Crossing Accident at Westboro, CPR., Carleton Place sub., one fatality

From the Ottawa Citizen Thursday 6 January 1955: Car Cut In Two By Train Toronto Molorist Weslboro Victim A 49-ycar-old Toronto man, John Dworkin, of 1715 Bathurst Street, died instantly shortly before noon today when his car was cut in two by a CPR city-bound passenger train at the Leafloor Road level crossing in Westboro. Body Found In Trunk The car was dragged a distance of 119 feet and was completely demolished. The dead man's body was recovered from the trunk of the wrecked auto. The crash occurred shortly after 11 a.m. on the private railway crossing behind the Lealloor Brothers coal and coke yards on tne Richmond Road. The body was taken to the Civic Hospital morgue by Exclusive Ambulance. Coroner Dr. W. T. Kendall said Dworkin, who was alone in the car, died instantly. The victim, district manager for the Warner Weather-Master aluminum window company, Toronto, was driving north on the narrow roadway to visit his agent here, Michael Cassidy who resides north of the CPR tracks on Leafloor Road. Saw Smash The accident was witnessed by two Leafloor Brothers employes, Frank Miller, of 537 McLeod Street, and Ronald Dunn, of 1086 Riddell Street. They were working on a nearby lumber pile. They told police they saw Dworkin driving down the roadway at a steady 10-miles an hour. They said that he continued onto the crossing at the same speed and the train struck the car dead center. M Preston Leach, of 5 Church Streetl Smiths Falls, engineer of the train, told police he had been travelling at 40 miles an hour. The train stopped a half-mile down the track following the impact. The cow-catcher on the locomotive was so badly twisted by the crash with the big, late model sedan, that the engine could not be moved. One car door, mangled beyond recognition, was still attached to the twisted cow-catcher. A few passengers on the train were taken to Ottawa in chartered buses. George Coughlan, of 56 Bayswater Avenue, was conductor of the train. It is understood that Dworkin has no immediate relatives in Ottawa. Miller and Dunn fold police that they clearly heard the whistle as the train sped towards the crossing. The crossing is a private thoroughfare, but it is used by a large number of residents in the area. Police Constables Lionel Lefebvre and Ivan Farmer investigated the accident.

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Updated 1 November 2019