1500  Purdytown Turnpike
Palmyra Township, PA

HONESDALE, PA — The Office of the Wayne County Coroner was dispatched to the scene of a fatal incident involving two men on Wednesday, June 29, at the Wayco, Inc. Quarry and Asphalt Plant located at 1500  Purdytown Turnpike, in Palmyra Township. The incident occurred at 11:32 a.m.

Wayne County Coroner Edward R. Howell and Chief Deputy Coroner Mark M. James responded to the scene. Howell pronounced Brian G. Edwards, 51, of Honesdale dead at 12:52  p.m. Edwards was located in an ambulance at the time of the coroner’s arrival.  Subsequently, at 12:55 p.m., Howell pronounced James Martzen, 72, of Waymart dead at 12:55 p.m. Martzen presented outdoors in the driveway of the quarry.

While this investigation is ongoing, these deaths are not considered suspicious. It is suspected that Edwards sustained an acute medical event rendering him unconscious while operating a dump truck upon exiting the quarry. This resulted in the dump truck that Edwards was operating rolling backward, downhill into the driveway of the quarry where Martzen was standing. Martzen was struck by the moving dump truck causing significant bodily trauma resulting in his death. 

Two different privately owned trucking companies employed both decedents.  Autopsies were conducted on Friday morning, June 21. Additional information will be provided as the death investigations continue.