NYYFAN
09-30-04, 08:47 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/football/nfl/09/30/bc.fbn.nflplayerkilled.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) -- A former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers led state troopers on a 40-mile chase along the New York State Thruway during morning rush hour Thursday before dying in a fiery head-on collision with a tanker truck carrying corrosive acid.
State police identified the victim as Justin Strzelczyk, 36, an offensive lineman with the Steelers for nearly a decade until the team released him in February 2000.
Troopers said Strzelczyk crashed his pickup truck into the westbound tanker just moments after swerving around a tractor-trailer that had pulled across the highway to block its path in the eastbound lanes.
Strzelczyk drove 15 miles on three tires and a rim after one of his pickup's tires was punctured by metal spikes thrown into the road by troopers.
"It could have been so much worse. We're fortunate that only one person died," said Trooper Jim Simpson, a state police spokesman.
"It looked like an airplane crash. There was quite a lot of diesel fuel spilled that was burning. The pickup was almost unrecognizable," he said.
Strzelczyk, who lives near Pittsburgh in McCandless, Pa., had been involved in another minor accident about an hour earlier just west of Syracuse, which started the bizarre turn of events, Simpson said.
The hit-and-run occurred about 7:20 a.m. and state police put out an alert for Strzelczyk's pickup. Troopers spotted him about 40 minutes later still heading east on the Thruway just west of Canastota, midway between Syracuse and Utica.
A second unit tried to stop the pickup by booby-trapping the road with the "stop sticks," but Strzelczyk just kept on going, Simpson said. The pickup was clocked at 88 mph, Simpson said.
HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) -- A former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers led state troopers on a 40-mile chase along the New York State Thruway during morning rush hour Thursday before dying in a fiery head-on collision with a tanker truck carrying corrosive acid.
State police identified the victim as Justin Strzelczyk, 36, an offensive lineman with the Steelers for nearly a decade until the team released him in February 2000.
Troopers said Strzelczyk crashed his pickup truck into the westbound tanker just moments after swerving around a tractor-trailer that had pulled across the highway to block its path in the eastbound lanes.
Strzelczyk drove 15 miles on three tires and a rim after one of his pickup's tires was punctured by metal spikes thrown into the road by troopers.
"It could have been so much worse. We're fortunate that only one person died," said Trooper Jim Simpson, a state police spokesman.
"It looked like an airplane crash. There was quite a lot of diesel fuel spilled that was burning. The pickup was almost unrecognizable," he said.
Strzelczyk, who lives near Pittsburgh in McCandless, Pa., had been involved in another minor accident about an hour earlier just west of Syracuse, which started the bizarre turn of events, Simpson said.
The hit-and-run occurred about 7:20 a.m. and state police put out an alert for Strzelczyk's pickup. Troopers spotted him about 40 minutes later still heading east on the Thruway just west of Canastota, midway between Syracuse and Utica.
A second unit tried to stop the pickup by booby-trapping the road with the "stop sticks," but Strzelczyk just kept on going, Simpson said. The pickup was clocked at 88 mph, Simpson said.