At some point, the second-class coach became detached from the front of the train in the run up to the bridge, but was driven forward by momentum and derailed.
The second-class coach rammed into the iron structure of the bridge, which cleaved it into two pieces, and burst into flames as a result of the oil stoves used to heat its interior.
The first-class coach was the second car to fall from the bridge embankment, breaking cleanly through the ice and sinking deep into the river.
[2] Meanwhile, the brakeman in the second-class coach, who had been miraculously thrown onto the ice, joined in the rescue efforts and ultimately was one of the people who undertook the long trek to Nairn through snow.
[2] The conductor of the train, Thomas Reynolds of North Bay, was one of the people to escape from the submerged dining car by swimming through the freezing river.
While a definitive cause was never established, poor track condition in winter, as well as the claims of improper speed and braking on the curve in the lead-up to the bridge, have both been cited as factors contributing to the crash.
[1] A jury investigation after the crash questioned whether three sectionmen were sufficient to keep their 8-mile (13 km) section in safe condition during brutal northern Ontario winters, and identified a lack of emergency equipment and exits as possible factors limiting the survival odds of people on board.
As passenger rail services were increasingly cut back, residents in the nearby blue-collar milling and railway towns began to rely on Greyhound coaches and personal automobiles to travel.
[6] Freight services retracted after improvements to Highway 17 and, with shifting economic factors, the branch line to Little Current on Manitoulin (a remnant of the Algoma Eastern Railway) was abandoned up to just south of the pulp and paper mill at Espanola.
[8] An investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada relating to one derailment in 2015 found that "a large number of rail joint defects were allowed to remain in service.