Trolley seriously injures elderly man

STAUNTON — A Churchville man was in serious condition after a Staunton city trolley hit him Tuesday morning.

Leo South, 88, was hit in the driveway of Baldwin Park apartments off Woodlee Road near North Augusta Street, police said.

South was flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, where he was listed in serious condition, according to a hospital representative.

It was the first serious injury in a trolley accident since the rides began in 2000, Deputy City Manager James Halasz said.

Twelve passengers were on the trolley when it hit the man, Halasz said.

Passengers Patty McCauley, 34, and her husband Travis McCauley, 26, were en route to class at Blue Ridge Community College when the accident happened. Travis, a blind man, said he heard a lot of yelling on the trolley.

“I heard people go, ‘Oh my God!,’ ” he said. “Then they were saying, ‘He’s falling,’ and, ‘Don’t move the trolley!’ ”

Baldwin Park Executive Director Jill Sproul said South frequently stayed at the Baldwin Park assisted living facility when his family vacationed. He’d just stepped outside for a walk, she said.

Patty McCauley, who sat near the front of the trolley, said she saw South walking outside her window. It looked like he was, “trying to beat the bus across the road,” she said.

Coordinated Area Transportation Services sent a bus to continue the rest of the route within an hour of the incident. The agency will conduct an investigation into the accident, said John Maher, transit manager.

The trolley driver was shaken from the accident and taken to Augusta Health, said Wayne Rankin, a CATS employee sent to the scene to retrieve the undamaged trolley.