Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1966, January 31 - Crossing accident  Ridge Road. Alexandria subdivision, two injured

From the Ottawa Citizen 1 February 1966 Two Injured as truck (sic) runs into garbage truck The driver and a helper escaped serious injury when a loaded garbage truck was hit by a passenger train at a level crossing Monday at 12.40 p.m. Lucien Bellefeuille, 24, of 131 Chapel St. and helper Ovide Poliquin of 94 Bruyere St. were treated at Civic Hospital and released following the accident. The incident occurred on the Ridge Road crossing half a mile south of the Russell Road. Damage to the late model truck was estimated between $15,000 and $16,000. Damage to the Canadian National Railways locomotive heading east toward Montreal when it struck the truck, was given as $3,000. The impact yanked the trailer part of the truck off its hydraulic lock to the cab and pitched it 40 feet into the northeast ditch. Cab not hit The cab wasn't hit by the train but was spun around and into the ditch beside the tracks. The trailer section of the truck was hit almost in midsection and demolished. Garbage was spread over a wide area as the trailer spun into the ditch. It took the train 400 yards to stop after the collision. Engineer John Shipman of 5494 Derossier St., Montreal, said the train was going 20 mph just before the accident. The train was delayed for some time and then allowed to continue to Montreal for repairs. Driver Bellefeuille told police he was warned by Mr. Poliquin that the train was approaching and applied the brakes but slid onto the tracks. When he saw the truck was going to be hit he accelerated and in doing so moved the truck forward just far enough to prevent the cab from being hit.

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Updated 6 February 2019