Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1961, October 13 - 11 cars derail when a car plows into the rear of a freight train at Carlsbad Springs, Canadian National, Alexandria subdivision.

From the Ottawa Citizen 14 October 1961 11 cars derailed, one hurt. Workmen cleared the main CNR line near Carlsbad Springs at 0830 this morning 12 hours after a spectacular car-train collision in which 11 freight cars were derailed and one man slightly injured. The injured man was Armand Brisson, 19, of St. Michael Street, Cyrville, driver of a car which police said plowed into the last cars of a long freight. Eleven cars toppled off the track, tying up the main line for 12 hours.  The accident occurred three miles from Carlsbad Springs at 7.10 p.m. yesterday. Brisson escaped with face, neck and arm abrasions.  His car was demolished. From the Ottawa Journal saturday 14 October 1961 Train Derailed In Crash A 19-year-old Cyrville youth escaped with lacerations after his car hit a CNR freight train and knocked 11 cars off  the rails at a Russell Road crossing three miles west of Carlsbad Springs, Friday. Carlsbad Springs is 15 milet east of Ottawa. Police said the 11 cars (nine empty tankers, a freight car and the caboose) were disconnected from the other 60 or so cars in the train. The CNR freight continued east to Montreal. The derailment at approximately 11 p m. blocked the main transcontinental line and delayed for 9 ½ hours the CNR main westbound train, the Continental. It arrived at Union Station at 8.30 a.m. about ½ hour after workmen, working the night through, cleared the line. Two freight trains were delayed but the morning train to Montreal left just 20 minutes late. Injured was Armand Bisson, 19, of St. Michel Street, Cyrville, who required 30 stitches in the face, knees and arms before being sent home from St. Louis de Montfort Hospital. He told police he was driving his 1952 sedan west on Russell Road and did not see the last cars of the train as he approached the track. The derailed cars ended up a few hundred feet east of the crossing, a number of them on their sides. Several sections of track were torn up by the impact. The car was wrecked police said.

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Updated 28 March 2018