Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1985, December 12 - Crossing collision Glen Robertson. CNR., Alexandria sub., one fatality.

Ottawa Citizen Decembr 13, 1986 Motorist killed in collision with VIA Train A woman was killed Thursday night when she drove around a car stopped at a rail crossing and smashed into a Montreal-bound VIA passenger train in Glen Roberston, 100 km east of Ottawa. Monique Bertrand, 40, of RR 1 Dunvegan, was killed instantly in the 9:10 p.m. collision at the level crossing on a back street in the small town of 600. Provincial police in Long Sault said the woman was alone in her car when she disregarded the flashing signal lights at the crossing. None of the 40 passengers on the train was injured, said a VIA spokesman from Montreal. The passengers were bused the remaining 100 kilometres to Montreal. The VIA spokesman said that because the main railway line was blocked, passengers on a Ottawa-bound train were transferred to buses at the Coteau station just west of Montreal. Police said it took until 12:30 a.m. this morning to clear the mangled car from beneath the train. A motorist who arrived at the scene moments after the crash said debris from the car was spread over a kilometre. Louis Lamoureux, of Hawkesbu-ry, said he was heading to Glen Robertson to visit a friend when he saw a large flashinthe sky "There was nothing left of the car." The fatal car-train accident is the third this year and second in seven weeks along the the Ottawa-Montreal line. There were also two other deaths involving elderly pedestrians struck by trains. The most recent of the fatalities occurred Oct. 26 when Pierre D'Aoust, 17, of Cumberland, was killed in a collision with a Montreal-bound VIA passenger train at a level crossing near Vars, which was not equipped with flashing signals. In April, Sharon Rombough, 37, of Moose Creek, was killed when her car was struck, by a Montreal-bound VIA train at a crossing equipped with warning lights near her home.

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Updated 1 July 2020