Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1964, April 7 - CNR Supercontinental hits a car at a crossing at Alexandria, CNR., Alexandria sub, two fatalities

Ottawa Citizen 8 April 1964 Carried half a mile Couple die as train rams truck ALEXANDRIA (Special) A speeding transcontinental train, "whistling its head off," slammed into a one-ton stake truck Tuesday afternoon (07/04), instantly killing a Greenfield couple. Dead are John Morpaw. 69. and his wife, Helena, 67, of Greenfield, eight miles west of here. The couple had lived for two years within 100 yards of the crossing where they were killed. A daughter, Caroline, 15, was in school at the time of the accident and wasn't told of the tragedy until she got home. Local men worked for almost two hours with hammers, axes, crowbars and cutting torches, to free the badlv-mangled bodies and wreckage from beneath the nonstop CNR Ottawa - Montreal Suoer-Continental. The 11-car train, travelling at 65 miles per hour, carried the truck more than a half-mile down the track. Several passengers on the train, with plane reservations at Dorval, completed the trip by taxi from Alexandria. Two men, neighbor Roddie McDougall. and Greenfield barber George Villeneuve, actually saw the crash. Mr. McDougall said he saw the couple leave the house in the truck and almost immediately heard the whistle of the train. "It was whistling its head off," said Mr. McDougall. He said the view of the crossing was perfect and he "never dreamed the truck wouldn't stop" but when all four wheels were on the tracks, it was hit. Planning to move Mr. McDougall said the couple was planning on moving to Cornwall and told him that's where they were going before they left. Mr. Villeneuve said he heard the train's whistle "that always fascinates me" and looked out to watch it go by. He saw the truck coming up the slight incline onto the crossing and saw it struck by the train. Parish priest Rev. Henri Ouimette administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church to the victims. The remains were taken to Miller's Funeral Home, Cornwall. The accident, investigated by OPP Const. D. V. Fosberg of the Maxville detachment, happened at 1.15 p.m. Engineer of the express was Wilfrid Benoit Gervais of Lasallc. Que. Coroner Dr. D. J. Dolan of Alexandria said no autopsies would be performed but that an inquest was pending. There are no signals at the crossing other than a wooden warning sign which marked it.

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Updated 20 March 2020