Man who caused fatal HOV wreck offers apology

Former PennDOT worker William D. Snyder said Friday he's sorry for causing a fiery, head-on crash that killed six people on Interstate 279's high-occupancy vehicle lane eight years ago.

"It's difficult. I dwell on what I've done," Snyder, 53, said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I'm very remorseful. It was a tragic accident. I didn't mean to do this."

Snyder spoke by telephone from the State Regional Correctional Facility at Mercer, Mercer County, yesterday, one day after mailing an apology letter to several media outlets.

Snyder is serving a 71/2- to 34-year sentence for the Aug. 25, 1995, crash that killed six and injured two. He was fired four days after he admitted to PennDOT officials that he reversed the order for closing and opening access gates on I-279's HOV lanes, allowing traffic to flow in both directions at once.

A pickup truck driven by James Christy, then 32, of Crafton Heights, smashed head-on into a car driven by Eleanor Siwicki, 58, of Lawrenceville, killing her and four of her five passengers. A passenger in Christy's truck also died in the wreck.

"From the very moment I became aware that I was responsible for causing an accident, I was remorseful and shocked," Snyder wrote in the one-page letter. "Upon learning that 6 lives were lost and 2 people were critically injured, words cannot properly relate the level of horror, sorrow, anguish, guilt, confusion and panic that came over me and is with me to this day."

Snyder said he wrote the letter over the past three months. It was a way for him to close the door on a day victims' families say they can't forget.

"It's been bothering me. I just felt I needed to do this," said Snyder, formerly of Penn Hills. "I never really got to apologize to the families at my sentencing. I just wanted to do it publicly for the families and PennDOT and my family."

Some of those families question whether Snyder has other motives for his public statement.

"My thoughts are he's using it to get out of jail," said John Ulanowicz, whose 16-year-old son, Daniel, of Ohio Township, died in the crash. "He should be in jail for the rest of his life. He put them there in their graves."

Alice Ann Scheibel lost both her daughter Nancy, 19, of Ross, and sister Deborah Karlik, 35, of Bellevue.

"I know he's getting up for his parole. If he's not on his best behavior, he'll be turned down," Scheibel said. "How can I forgive this• I love my sister and daughter. How can I forgive him over time?"

Snyder's minimum sentence on six counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless endangerment expires Nov. 27.

Each inmate eligible for parole is guaranteed an interview with a parole review board three months before his minimum sentence expires, state Board of Probation and Parole spokeswoman Lauren Taylor said. She said the process to prepare for that interview begins six months before expiration, which, for Snyder, would have been May.

"I would like to get out jail, no doubt, but this is no ploy or no manipulating on my part," Snyder said. "It's just closure for me. This is something I'll live with until the day that I die."

David Keller, 31, a Beechview native, who had been riding in Christy's truck, and Patricia Shackelford, 38, of the North Side, also were killed in the crash. Injured were Christy and Bobbi Jo Shackelford, then 16, of the North Side, who was riding in the car driven by Siwicki.

During his sentencing in September 1996, Snyder asked the victims' families "to forgive him," but added, "PennDOT was 90 percent at fault."

In his letter, Snyder places blame on himself. He admits he was "irresponsible and negligent" and that trace amounts of opiates from a prescribed cough syrup, cocaine and marijuana were "contributing factors in my lack of proper thought processes at that most critical and devastating time.

"I would never knowingly or willingly put anyone's or anything's life in danger."

Snyder said he works in the storeroom of the minimum-security prison in Mercer County, loading and unloading supply trucks. He's taken part in drug and alcohol, character development, stress and anger, citizenship and life skills programs and believes he's a different person.

"I've changed my life around," he said. "I look at things different."

Alice Ann Scheibel says she, too, looks at things differently. Her daughter would have been 27 on Tuesday.

"When I turn that radio on every morning and they talk about the HOV lane, it's there," she said. "I can't even drive into the city."