US man tending to gravestone dies after headstone falls on him

Washington, Mar 31: A 74-year-old man has died in the US state of Pennsylvania when a headstone, weighing nearly 180 kg, fell on him while he was decorating his mother's grave for Easter.

Stephen Woytack was attaching a religious ornament yesterday to the stone at St. Joseph's Cemetery when it toppled, pinning Woytack underneath, Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland said.

Woytack and his wife Lucy had been visiting St. Joseph's Cemetery regularly over the years.

The warmer weather "made the terrain, monument and its base unstable," causing it to fall on Woytack, Rowland was quoted as saying by the Scranton Times-Tribune.

The granite headstone weighed 300-400 pounds (140 to 180 kilos). Woytack's death has been listed as accidental.

Woytack's wife of 46 years, Lucy said the accident "happened so quickly".

Lucy described her husband as a kind and loving man who was very involved with the church.

PTI