The peace of a Saturday evening in Lackawanna County was tragically interrupted, leaving a local community reeling from the sudden loss of one of their own. Stanley Gorczyk, a 60-year-old Dickson City resident, was simply walking along a busy stretch of highway when his life was abruptly cut short. The incident, which has understandably cast a shadow over the area, occurred on Business Route 6 near the popular Circle Drive-In, turning a routine moment into an absolute disaster.
Details released by the Lackawanna County Coroner’s Office paint a picture of sudden, devastating impact. According to Coroner Tim Rowland, Gorczyk succumbed to multiple traumatic injuries after being struck by a vehicle. The 911 call came in around 5:46 p.m., as dusk was settling in, a time when visibility can be tricky and the flow of traffic is often heavy. Chief Deputy Coroner Jesse VanDeusen was called to the scene and, sadly, pronounced Mr. Gorczyk deceased right where the accident happened.
It’s a chilling reminder of how quickly life can change, especially on fast-moving roads. The local authorities, including Dickson City Police and state troopers, immediately descended on the area to begin a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the crash. For roughly three hours, the westbound lanes of the highway were completely shut down, a serious disruption that signaled the gravity of the tragedy that had occurred there.
For now, many of the specifics surrounding the collision remain unreleased. Authorities are working diligently to piece together exactly what happened in those final, fatal moments. Was it a simple misjudgment? Was it a momentary distraction? The silence from the investigators has left the community waiting for answers, but the Coroner’s office has already made one final determination about the manner of death: it has been officially classified as accidental.
While the investigation focuses on the technical aspects of the crash—the vehicles, the lighting, the timing—the heart of the matter is the loss of a life. Stanley Gorczyk was a resident of Dickson City, a neighbor, and a member of the community. Sixty years is far too young to have one’s story end this way, caught off-guard on a route so familiar to so many. The casual walk he took that evening was supposed to be just that: casual, safe, and unremarkable.
The lasting impact of an accident like this stretches far beyond the scene itself. It touches the driver involved, the first responders who had to manage the devastating aftermath, and, most deeply, the friends and family of Mr. Gorczyk. While the public waits for any further details on the crash—and perhaps more importantly, an obituary that can begin to paint a picture of the man Stanley was outside of this tragic headline—they are left with the somber understanding that a quiet life was tragically lost in a sudden, violent instant.
The community is now left to grapple with the unexpected vacuum left by his passing. This tragedy serves as a harsh, visceral warning to both drivers and pedestrians about the extreme caution required when navigating busy highways like Route 6. Everyone who knew Stanley Gorczyk will remember a man who was walking home, or to a destination, on a Saturday evening, never realizing that he would become the subject of a heartbreaking local news story.
