Accident kills woman, 69

A 69-year-old North Carolina woman died Friday when an unattended tractor-trailer rolled down a hill and crashed into the BP gas station along Route 524.

Nancy Gawarecki, 69, of Pine Bluff, N.C., was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:05 p.m. by Lackawanna County Deputy Coroner Tim Rowland, nearly an hour after the crash occurred.

The Priority Transportation tractor with a 53-foot trailer attached was parked in the lot of a Gulf station on the north side of Route 524, township Police Chief James Romano said. It rolled downhill, across the highway into the BP station parking lot, struck Mrs. Gawarecki and crashed into the store building.

Mrs. Gawarecki was standing outside a Chevrolet Impala with North Carolina license plates parked near pumps 8 and 9. Her husband was pumping gas at the time, Chief Romano said.

“The driver wasn’t in the truck at the time,” the chief said. “When he came out and saw what happened, he had a heart attack.”

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