Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1966, October 11 - Crossing accident  at Richmond, Smiths Falls subdivision, two injured

From the Ottawa Citizen October 12, 1966 Two Men Injured in Crossing Crash Two men were critically injured when their stake truck hit a Canadian National passenger train in Richmond at 2.53 p.m. Tuesday. The train was almost derailed by the impact, but none of the 209 passengers was injured. The accident was the second at the McBean Street crossing this year. Engineer Herbert Roach of Ottawa was driving the Brockville-Ottawa train on both occasions. Tuesday's accident came as investigators probed the deaths of 19 teen-agers in the Friday evening collision of a schoolbus and a CNR train in Dorion, Que. The injured In Civic hospital are Russell Needham. 33, of RR2, Pakenham, driver of the truck, and Gordon Dool, 60, of RR4, Pakenham. Mr. Needham suffered severe head and chest injuries; Mr. Dool, neck and spinal injuries. The crossing, marked only by warning signs, is about half a mile from the centre of Richmond and 12 miles south of Ottawa. The truck approached it from the east, striking the northbound train at the second of its two cars. The train, travelling at about 55 miles an hour, dragged the truck 60 feet before hurling it backward into a ditch beside the track. One of the two horses in the truck broke its back in the accident. It was shot at the scene by police officers. The other escaped with cuts and bruises. The truck was demolished. It destroyed track-switching equipment 30 feet from the crossing. Experts at the site said destruction of the switching equipment could have derailed the train. Damage to the train, delay-about an hour, was estimated at $5,000. Engineer Roach, of 17 Gilmour St., said he saw the truck approaching the crossing from the east about five seconds before the collision. "I blew the whistle three times, but he just kept on coming," Mr. Roach added. There were no skid marks near the point of impact. The crossing is visible for several hundred yards on either side. Mr. Roach was engineer of the train which hit a transport truck at the same crossing Jan. 25. The truck was badly damaged in the earlier accident, but its driver, James Timmins of Pakenham, escaped uninjured. Mr. Roach was involved in a third level-crossing accident three weeks ago near Smiths Falls. The driver of the car which collided with his train was admitted to hospital. Forty-five years old, Mr. Roach, a bachelor, had had no serious accidents in 27 years with CNR before assignment to the Brockville-Ottawa run earlier this year.  Mr. Roach noted a railway official had told him Tuesday that flashers are to be installed at the McBean Street crossing later this year. Richmond Police Chief Ernest Saumur, investigating the accident with the Ontario Provincial Police, said he had called railway experts from Toronto to Richmond after the January accident. In his brief to the railway experts, Chief Saumur requested installation of flashing lights and wig-wag signals at the crossing. "I got no satisfaction whatsoever, despite a station wagon clipping a train right while we were watching the crossing," he said.

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Updated 6 February 2019