- 1923, Friday August 17, The Almonte Gazette front page
John Young Is Killed At Main Street Crossing Prominent Almonte Citizen Meets Death While Driving Buggy over Railway
Jury Returns Verdict of Accidental Death but Recommends that Improvements be Effected in order that View of Railway be Less Obstructed.
Mr. John Young, a well-known citizen of Almonte, was killed at the main street crossing of the C.P.R. on Saturday evening about 7 o'clock. He was driving across the railway in a buggy when a freight train travelling west struck him. From the evidence at the inquest held in the council chamber on Wednesday evening with Dr. A.A. Metcalfe, the coroner presiding it appeared that two freight trains had passed through Almonte within fifteen or twenty minutes on Saturday evening. Possibly Mr. Young, had judged that after the first had gone through the rails would clear for a considerable time. At any rate the second train was almost upon him when he observed it. It was about 75 feet away. He was affected with deafness, so that he did not hear the whistle of the locomotive the ringing of the locomotive bell and the ringing of the crossing bell, all the evidence showed that the usual precautions were observed, and that the train was not travelling at an excessive speed. W. Kenny, of Smiths Falls, the engineer of the train stated that there was no particular order for passing through the town of Almonte. They could go up to 30 miles. He states in reply to Dr. Metcalfe that slow up orders had been received since the accident. Both he and Leslie Ritchie, the fireman, saw Mr. Young endeavouring to cross the rack after he saw the oncoming train. When Mr. Young observed it he urged his horse forward but apparently it became frightened and balked. Mr. Ritchie thought he could have stopped instead of trying to cross. However, he made the effort to get his horse and buggy across the rails and failed. The train caught them, the horse was cut in two, and carried some distance. Mr. Young was thrown out and injured beyond hope of recovery. His skull was fractured, his jaw and both legs broken, and there were internal injuries as well. He was taken at once to the R.M. Hospital but died immediately upon his arrival there, some fifteen minutes after the accident. He never regained consciousness. It seems that the only persons in Almonte who witnessed the accident were Mr. Robert Ford and two children. Mr. Ford gave evidence at the inquest. He said he anticipated the accident. He saw Mr. Young drive up Main Street, and when he heard the approached of the train he remarked to a friend with him that he was sure the accident would happen. Mr. Young's horse was waling as he approached the crossing. Mr. Matthew Ballantyne was called upon as a witness. He was at the Power House at the time. He did not see the accident, however, although he noticed that the train had slowed up, He did not see Mr. Young drive up the street. A number of C.P.R. officials were examine and gave technical evidence the most vital of which appeared to be the difficulty of seeing a train on account of the flour mill obstructing the view. The width of the road on the north side of the railway is 53? feet on the south side 56 feet while the width of the C.P.R. crossing is about 70 feet. The jury was as follows: Messrs. John Blakeley, foreman, A. Johnston, Wm. Carnochan, Frank Murray, Robt. Needham, Samuel Davis, George Bradford, Walter Lockhart, Ed. Nicholson and Sidney McLean. They brought in a verdict of accidental death, recommending that improvements be effected in order to give a better view of the crossing an approaches. Rev. J.H. Rutherford of the Cameronian church conducted the funeral services in the absence of Rev. J.I. McCrea. The deceased is survived by two brothers and one sister; Robert Young, of Ottawa; Andrew Young and Mrs John McFarlane of Almonte. Four brothers, Alexander, William, Peter and Stephen, and three sisters, Mrs Angus Sutherland, Mrs John McCarter and Mrs Henry Cavers predeceased him. He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs Peter Young of Bennie's Corners who died some years ago and was in his 83rd year. For many years he carried on a blacksmith business in Almonte retiring several years ago. The pallbearers at the funeral were six nephews; Vincent Young, Herbert Young, Peter Young, M.R. Young, Peter Sutherland and E.H. Knight.
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1831 - 1901 (69 years)
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