HERKIMER, N.Y. A former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers (search) led troopers on a 40-mile high-speed Thursday before driving into oncoming traffic and dying in a fiery head-on collision with a tanker truck.
State police identified the dead motorist as Justin Strzelczyk (search), 36, an offensive lineman with the Steelers for nearly a decade until the team released him in 2000. The tanker truck driver was treated for minor injuries and released, but no one else was hurt, police said.
Troopers said Strzelczyk was traveling at nearly 90 mph before the rush-hour collision on the New York State Thruway (search) in upstate New York. He was ejected from his pickup truck and both vehicles burst into flames.
"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. The pickup was almost unrecognizable."
State police said they put out an alert for Strzelczyk's pickup Thursday morning, after it was involved in a minor hit-and-run accident just west of Syracuse. Police spotted him about 40 minutes later, headed east on the thruway about midway between Syracuse and Utica.
Strzelczyk drove 15 miles on three tires after one of his tires was punctured by metal spikes thrown into the road by troopers, police said.
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.
"He was going down the road, flipping off the troopers. He even threw a beer bottle at them," Simpson said.
