Indiana County man killed after being trapped under 500-pound rock at Derry Township quarry

A man from Indiana County was killed Tuesday afternoon after a large rock fell onto his legs at a quarry near the Derry Township village of Torrance, authorities said.

Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson identified the man as James F. Gershman, 61, of White Township. He said the man was a quarry employee who was working in a mine shaft at the site when the rock fell on him.

One firefighter entered a mine portal at the quarry and accompanied quarry personnel as they brought the man out on a backboard, said Mark Piantine, chief of Derry Township Volunteer Fire Department Company No. 1 of Bradenville.

Firefighters were called to the site in the 300 block of Quarry Road about 3:45 p.m.

“It was almost 2½ miles from the bottom of the road to the portal up in the quarry,” Piantine said.

Carson said Gershman was pronounced dead about 5:45 p.m. The cause and manner of death are pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology testing, he said.

Blairsville firefighters set up a landing zone for possible arrival of a medical helicopter, but the helicopter was cancelled, Piantine said.

State police also responded.

Heidelberg Materials, the operator of the quarry, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The company is a supplier of cement, aggregates, ready mixed concrete and asphalt with more than 450 locations and about 9,000 employees, according to its website.

The quarry is on the western slope of Chestnut Ridge and is visible from Torrance State Hospital.