Man sentenced in drug-induced crash

BY STACI WILSON

The 24-year-old that killed a 73-year-old man on Interstate 81 in what police described as a high speed, drug-induced crash was sentenced Thursday in the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas.

Dylan Robert Schmiel, 24, of Glen Falls, N.Y., will serve 16 months to five years in state prison for involuntary manslaughter. He was also sentenced to serve three days to six months in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility for Driving Under the Influence.

David Decker, stopped his vehicle in a safe area on the right shoulder of the highway on May 10, 2014, checking on a noise coming from the vehicle.

Decker was outside the driver’s side of his Chevrolet Traverse when Schmiel’s car left the right lane, crossed the white fog line and traveled onto the shoulder striking the Traverse, then hitting the Endicott man.

According to court documents, witnesses said Schmiel was driving erratically – even passing one car on the right shoulder of the highway shortly before the crash.

Schmiel’s vehicle was traveling at about 78 mph when he struck Decker, according to police.

Schmiel pleaded guilty in April to misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter and DUI:
controlled substance. He has been held in the county jail since August 2014.