HURRICANE, W.Va. — An elderly man suffering some kind of medical episode is dead after an accident. Hurricane police say Robert Shirkey of Hurricane was killed in the crash about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday not far from his home.
“It was on Lower Virginia Avenue in Hurricane down toward Culloden,” said Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards. “It was a single vehicle accident. It was an older gentleman and he hit a tree. When first responders got there he was dead.”
Family members tell police Shirkey had left his home headed to the hospital for an unspecified medical emergency. He hadn’t made it very far when he crashed.
“He was very close to home when the wreck happened,” Edwards explained. “He was maybe a minute or two from his house.”
Shirkey’s body has been sent to the state Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy to determine his cause of death.