21 July 2007
Motorist Hurt in Collision with Train
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Waterloo Regional Police traffic and identification officers
investigate after a car was struck by a CP train at the Bond Street crossing in Cambridge. The 9:30 a.m. crash shut down both the rail
line and Bond Street for several hours yesterday.
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Cambridge Ontario - A 70-year-old man was
airlifted to a Hamilton hospital with serious injuries yesterday after his car collided with a train in south Cambridge.
The man was driving across the railway tracks on Bond Street at about 9:30 a.m. when his car was struck by an eastbound Canadian
Pacific freight train.
The car was struck on its right side and pushed from the tracks by the engine of the train.
It came to rest on an adjacent set of tracks about five metres from the roadway.
Elsie Kitzman and Tom Bodfield were in a home across the road from the rail crossing when the train slammed into the car.
"We knew right away someone had been hit," Kitzman said. "The train was on a good clip."
The engineer pulled on the brakes, but the train didn't come to a stop for more than 100 metres.
Bodfield ran across the road to check on the driver when he heard the distinct sound of the impact and Kitzman ran to call 911.
"I started talking to him and he wasn't responding," Bodfield said.
"I grabbed his hand and he started responding to that... He was in shock."
Bodfield said the driver was laying sideways across the front seats of the car - his seatbelt preventing him from moving.
Cambridge firefighters soon arrived, cutting the driver's seatbelt and removing him from the car.
The driver, the sole occupant of the car, was first taken by ambulance to Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
Because of the severity of his injuries, he was later airlifted to Hamilton General, Waterloo regional police Sgt. David Reibel said.
Police said the man's family lives in Cambridge, but they hadn't confirmed if the driver lived in Cambridge as well or was visiting,
Reibel said.
The roadway and rail line remained closed for several hours yesterday as Waterloo regional and CP rail police investigated the crash.
A steady stream of drivers passing by on Samuelson Street slowed or stopped to look at the remnants of the crash.
The car's windshield was smashed and the front passenger side crumpled from the impact. The engine of the train came to a stop just
under the Elgin Street North overpass and its cars stretched back to the Water Street rail bridge.
The Oshawa-bound train was carrying a load of truck frames at the time of the collision.
Lights and barricades are present at the crossing, blocking vehicles from four sets of tracks when a train passes.
Police are still trying to piece together if the driver went around the barricades or if they came down after he was already on the
path of the rails.
"We think the barricades were working properly, but it's still under investigation as to what exactly happened," Reibel said.
No charges have been laid, he said.
Police are appealing for any witnesses to the crash to call the traffic services branch at 519-653-7700 ext.
8857.
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