Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1963 September 13  - Crossing Collision at Vars, Alexandria, CNR., Alexandria sub., minor injuries

Ottawa Citizen 13 September 1963 Train rams bus driver gets free VARS (Staff) - A woman missed death at 8.15 this morning when the school bus she was driving was demolished by a fast passenger train at a crossing just east of the Vars CNR station. There were no children aboard the bus. Mrs. Gilberte Trudeau, 34, wife of Alcide Trudeau, managed to jump clear seconds before the locomotive crashed into the front of the bus. She is in St. Louis Marie de Montfort Hospital suffering from shock, and abrasions to the head and upper body. Her condition is reported as good. Mrs. Trudeau had left her home a few minutes earlier, and was en route to pick up children for the daily trip to schools in the area. Stopped too close She stopped at the level crossing, but the front of the bus was too close to the tracks. She opened the front door to make sure the way was clear, and saw the fast-moving Ottawa to Montreal passenger train No. 48. Mrs. Trudeau jumped from the vehicle and threw herself into a ditch along the right of way. It is thought that she was struck by some of the flying debris when the locomotive crashed into the bus a few seconds later. The bus, owned by the woman's husband, was demolished.

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Updated 18 March 2020