Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 27-year-old Kristofer Gregorek of Ballston Spa, New York has been arrested and charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree for a fatal crash on the New York State Thruway. 

It is alleged that on June 8, 2017 at about 9:45 a.m., the defendant’s commercial truck rear-ended a car driven by 44-year-old Ellen Volpe of Rochester, killing her. 

Volpe was an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Nursing. 

According to prosecutors, Gregorek was accessing the Internet over his cell phone when the crash occurred at a construction site near exit 49 (Depew) in Lancaster, NY. 

Gregorek is expected to be arraigned this evening in Town of Lancaster Court. 

DA Flynn commends New York State Police Investigator John McCusker and the NYSP Collision Reconstruction Unit for their thorough investigation. 

Assistant District Attorney Christopher M. McCarthy in the DA’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case. 

As are all persons accused of a crime, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.