(The Montreal Gazette published the following story by Sidhartha Banerjee on its website on August 14.)
MONTREAL — A Hochelaga-Maisonneuve man died yesterday after his golf cart was struck by a Canadian Pacific locomotive at a crossing in Meadowbrook Golf Course in Côte St. Luc.
Gilles Lefèbvre, 58, was pronounced dead by a doctor at the scene after ambulance technicians tried unsuccessfully to revive him.
Lefèbvre and two others were making their way to the back nine at Meadowbrook.The golf course is divided in two by a CP railway line that requires golfers to walk or drive their carts using a private crossing across the railway tracks to get to holes 10 through 18.
According to witnesses, Lefèbvre was making his away along the small pathway that leads across the rail lines.
Minutes earlier, about 12:46 p.m. two locomotives had left the Côte St. Luc rail yard, and were hitched together and heading east along the tracks to the city’s east end.
Vincent Laudi, 76, was part of Lefèbvre’s threesome and had played golf with the victim on a few other occasions.
He clearly heard the bells signaling the train was coming and was about 25 metres behind Lefèbvre when the cart was struck.
“I heard the horn of the train and by the time I got to the tracks the train was gone, my friend was lying there and I saw the roof of the cart was in the gully,” Laudi said. “That’s how fast it happened.”
Witnesses said the train clipped the back end of the cart, which ended up in a ditch that runs alongside the tracks. But Lefèbvre was ejected from the cart on impact and was found lying on the ground near the tracks, his clubs strewn beside him.
Laudi rushed over to see if there was anything he could do to help Lefèbvre, who was not conscious and didn’t respond.
“He was a nice fellow, kind-hearted and very good humored,” Laudi said. “It’s really too bad.”
Lefèbvre had golfed at the course for some years and had been a member at Meadowbrook for about one year.
Crossing the tracks is a normal part of golfing at Meadowbrook and golfers know to listen and look before crossing.
“We don’t have to wait, but (we do if) there is a bell or we can hear the train coming,” said André Douesnard, 70, who has been golfing at Meadowbrook for 52 years.
“Every day there were hundreds of people crossing the tracks here and this is the first time there has ever been an accident,” Douesnard said.
One woman whose teenage sons have played at the course for the past three years said she had doubts when she saw the tracks, but was reassured it was safe.
“I was very surprised. I was reassured that nothing like that ever happened here,” Ilana Wackz said.
She said she’d like to see a gate or safety rail that would require people to stop.
Constable Olivier Lapointe of the Montreal police said the golf cart will be examined to see if there was any mechanical failure.
Investigators questioned the train conductor yesterday and were waiting to get their hands on the event recorder, to determine the speed of the train and when the brakes were used, Lapointe said.