# Former Steelers OL Strzelczyk dies after chase, fiery crash



## Jeep (Aug 19, 2004)

Former Steelers OL Strzelczyk dies after chase, fiery crash 
Sept. 30, 2004
SportsLine.com wire reports 

HERKIMER, N.Y. -- Justin Strzelczyk, a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, died Thursday in a fiery head-on collision with a tanker truck after he led state troopers on a 40-mile highway chase during morning rush hour. 


Justin Strzelczyk is remembered by the Steelers as a 'good guy.'(AP) 
Strzelczyk, 36, was an offensive lineman with the Steelers for nearly a decade until the team released him in February 2000. 

State police said Strzelczyk crashed his pickup truck into the westbound empty tanker just moments after swerving around a tractor-trailer that pulled across the highway to block 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." 

Strzelczyk, who lived in McCandless, Pa., near Pittsburgh, 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. 

A second unit tried to stop the pickup by booby-trapping the road with the "stop sticks," but Strzelczyk just kept on going. The pickup was clocked at 88 mph, Simpson said. 

"He was going down the road, flipping off the troopers. He even threw a beer bottle at them," Simpson said. 

A trucker saw the chase and pulled his rig across the road. Instead of stopping, the pickup drove across the grass median into the westbound lanes and traveled about three miles in the wrong direction before the deadly crash. 

The collision with the tanker occurred about 8:15 a.m., when the highway was busy with morning commuters and travelers. 

Police identified the driver of the tanker as Harold Jackson, 60, from Bowman, S.C. He was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released. No one else was hurt. 

Mary Joyce Strzelczyk, of West Seneca, N.Y., said she suspected her son may have been suffering from an untreated mental or emotional disorder.


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

*Re: Former Steelers OL Strzelczyk dies after chase, fiery cr*

I'll bet his untreated mental/emotional disorder had nothing to do with alcohol :? .

Good job, NYSP Troop B! 

That's one 'sports celebrity' that won't get away with a crime! 8)


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