Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1985, April 9 - Crossing collision, Moose Creek, Alexandria sub., one fatality

Ottawa Citizen 10 April 1985 Car-train crash kills woman  An Ottawa-area woman was killed instantly Tuesday afternoon when her car was struck by a Montreal-to-Ottawa VIA passenger train at a level crossing near her home on the outskirts of Moose Creek, near Casselman. Sharon Rombough, 37, was crossing the CN tracks as the two-car train, with 90 passengers, came by at 4:10 p.m. None of the train passengers was injured. The train was delayed two hours. Provincial police at Long Sault said that just before the collision, Rombough was driving east along a sideroad that runs parallel to the tracks. When she came to an intersecting road, she made a left turn and drove across the tracks into the train's path. The crossing's flashing warning lights were working and police say it's a mystery why Rombough continued across the tracks, especially since she could have seen the approaching westbound train while driving east along the side-road. They said the afternoon sun would not have been in her eyes. Rombough was going to pick up her 4½ -year-old daughter from the babysitter when the accident happened, said her husband Earl Rombough, 34. He said at first he feared both his wife and only daughter were in the car when he was told of the accident by a friend. "I didn't know if she had picked up our daughter yet. I thought I lost them both." Rombough said the train engineer told police his wife appeared to have stopped at the crossing, which is less than a kilometre north of the couple's home, and then proceeded again slowly across the tracks. "I don't know why she didn't see the (warning) lights."

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Updated 29 June 2020