HISTORY THROUGH OUR EYES

Oct. 7, 1966: Dorion school bus tragedy

On the Friday evening of Oct. 7, 1966, a school bus carrying students from Cité-des-Jeunes high school in Vaudreuil was struck by a fast-moving freight train at a level crossing in Dorion. The force of the crash sheared the yellow school bus in half. The accident took 21 lives, including that of one person who died several years later.

This photo was published the next day on Page 1 of the Montreal Gazette. The students had been headed to a dance in Hudson, a reward for their recent victories in student council elections, we reported at the time.

We added more detail in a 2016 article marking the 50th anniversary of the tragedy: “It was Thanksgiving weekend and the giddy students were singing CC Rider as the bus approached the level rail crossing on St-Charles Ave.,” we wrote. “Eighteen passengers and the bus driver were killed almost instantly as the 101car train dragged the front part of the mangled bus down the tracks for more than a half mile.”

Our report on Oct. 8, 1966, had described the grim scene: “An hour after the train tore into the bus as it moved across the tracks, volunteers were still searching deep ditches on either side of the rail line. There was a deathly hush as the workers — joined by volunteer air cadets no older than the victims — dragged the bodies one by one to a waiting line of ambulances that caused a mammoth traffic pile on Routes 2 and 17.” We also spoke to two SteAnne-de-Bellevue constables who had just helped take six bodies to hospital. “‘It was the worst night of my life,’ one of the constables said. ‘I just want to be sick.’ ”