Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1964, October 30 - Boy cycles into the side of The Canadian at Stittsville, CPR., Carleton Place sub., one fatality

Ottawa Citizen 31 October 1964 Cycling carrier boy dies; hit by train at Stittsville A 15-year-old Stittsville boy died in the emergency ward of the Civic Hospital Friday night three hours after he ran his bicycle into the side of a train. Gordon Donald McRae, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wendell McRae and a Citizen carrier boy, cycled into the side of the westbound CPR Canadian as it passed through Stittsville at 4.28 p.m. Gordon had been proceeding south on Main Street with his paper bag over his shoulder and pedalled alongside several cars stopped for the oncoming train. Then, as he neared the track, he looked back over his shoulder at a chum behind. The train crew, unaware of the mishap, did not halt the train. Gordon died of multiple injuries. Ontario Provincial Police Const. Lloyd Logan ordered the train stopped at Chalk River, about 100 miles west. Engineer of the train was Gerald Greenham of 185 Hinton Ave., Ottawa. Ottawa Citizen 11 December 1964 Slow down orders to train crews after crossing death An error in judgment contributed to the death of a 15-year-old Stittsville cyclist who ran into the side of a train at the Stittsville crossing Oct. 30, a coroner's jury found Thursday night. Donald Gordon McRae, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wendell McRae, pedalled into the side of the CPR transcontinental Canadian as it travelled west through Stittsville at 65 miles an hour. Dr. Maxwell Klotz, pathologist at the General Hospital, said the boy died of severe internal injuries. The jury recommended that train speeds through Stittsville be reduced by 20 miles an hour. They also urged that warning signals be sounded one-half mile from the crossing instead of the present system of starting to blow a train's warning whistle one-quarter mile away. Gerald Greenhara of 195 Hinton Ave., Ottawa, engineer of the train with which Donald collided, said that since the accident engineers have been under orders to pass over the crossing at 25 miles an hour. Mr. Greenham said he was not aware of the accident until the train made its regular stop at Carleton Place, 13 miles west of Stittsville.  J. D. Smith of Stittsville said he had been driving along Main Street in Stittsville the day of the accident, and stopped for the train when he saw a boy on a bicycle cut across in front of his auto. "It all happened so fast I didn't have a chance to see whether he saw the train and slowed down for it or not," Mr. Smith said. Donald, a Citizen carrier boy, had just picked up his papers for delivery from their drop-off point a few hundred feet from the tracks. The jury's report carried a rider that if their recommendations were impractical a crossing gate should be stalled.

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Updated 23 March 2020