Syracuse University freshman Andrew Mapley was killed in a head-on collision Saturday at approximately 7:20 a.m., according to a Jan. 27 article in The Post-Standard. He was 18 years old.

Mapley was driving home after working a midnight to 7 a.m. shift at a FedEx facility in Cato, N.Y. when the accident occurred, Mapley’s father, Michael Mapley, said to The Post-Standard.

Mapley’s Hyundai Elantra crossed the center line into oncoming traffic and collided with a pickup truck, also causing injuries to the three people in the truck. Mapley was less than one mile away from his home, state police told The Post-Standard.

WSTM News reported that he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mapley graduated with honors from Cato-Meridian High School in June and was an information technology major at SU. He had hoped to someday design Web pages for sports teams, according to the article.

Saturday’s crash is the second tragedy that the Mapley family has experienced in recent years. On Jan. 7, 2003 his older brother, Cody, died in a snowmobiling accident. Mapley will be buried next to his brother on the family farm in Cayuga County, his father said to The Post-Standard.

‘They were good boys. Boys we never had to worry about drinking or getting into trouble,’ he said to The Post-Standard.

It is unclear why Mapley failed to stay in his lane, and troopers told Rochester, N.Y.’s Democrat & Chronicle the accident is still under investigation.

Published on January 28, 2008 at 12:00 pm