Main Line man killed on Radnor Trail

A 65-year-old Devon man was killed Thursday afternoon by a 45-foot-long branch that snapped off a tree and fell on him as he sat on a bench beside the Radnor Trail in Radnor Township, Delaware County, authorities said.

Safety superintendent William A. Colarulo said the accident happened about 3 p.m.

A 17-year-old hiker heard the limb splinter and ran to try and revive the victim using CPR, Colarulo said. The effort wasn't successful; the man was pronounced dead a short time later at Bryn Mawr Hospital, Colarulo said.

The trail, which follows part of the bed of the former Philadelphia & Western (P&W) trolley line between 69th Street and Strafford, is used by hikers and bikers by the hundreds.

The trail starts at Radnor-Chester Road in Radnor and goes for 2.4 miles before ending at Sugartown Road in Strafford.

Lined with trees and brush, it is maintained by the township which pruned several overhanging branches in early spring. There had been no previous serious incidents or accidents on the trail, Colarulo said.

Colarulo said that the man, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of kin, was sitting on a trailside bench near the Radnor-Chester Road end of the trail when the branch fell.

Rough-hewn benches made from half a tree trunk cradled in two wooden end pieces, are placed along the trail. Families sometimes picnic on them, and joggers use them for stretching.

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