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MEDIA RELEASE

08-21-05  5:00 PM
Fatal Motor Vehicle Accident
For Immediate Release

Sheriff Rob Outhouse announces that the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a one car, one victim, fatal motor vehicle accident which occurred on NYS Rt.34 in the Town of Ira just north of the Village of Cato in Northern Cayuga County.

The investigation reveals that Christopher M. Skotniski age 26 of  Palermo, N.Y.was operating a 1990 Eagle northbound on Rt.34 and failed to negotiate a curve. The vehicle traveled through the apex of the curve and left the roadway crashing through a cable guide rail. The vehicle then continued out of control down an embankment striking several trees where it came to rest out of sight from the roadway. Skotniski who was ejected from the vehicle was apparently dead for some time when found by family members at 10:30 this morning. They had begun their search for him since he had not arrived to pick up his brother in Oswego County. CIMVAC EMTs responding to the scene after their call and confirmed the death, that investigation is being continued through the Cayuga County Coroner’s Office.

Skotniski had left his step-fathers residence in the Village of Cato at approximately 2:00 AM this morning to pick up his brother at the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office following the brother’s arrest for Driving While Intoxicated. The investigation reveals that Skotniski was with his brother at around midnight on their way home from the Hannibal Field Days, when they were stopped on Rt.34 in the Town of Hannibal by the Oswego County Sheriff’s Patrol. Skotniski’s bother: Larry Quackenbush, was taken into custody for DWI in Oswego County around Midnight. Skotniski and the vehicle were picked up at the scene of the DWI stop in Oswego County by Skotniski’s step father and driven to the step-fathers residence in Cato.

Approximately two hours later the family received a call from the brother who was arrested stating he was being released and needed a ride home. Skotniski then left alone to pick him up and was not heard from again. The accident occurred less than two miles from the step father’s residence on the South side of the Village of Cato.

Sheriff Rob Outhouse

The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to call the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit at 315- 253-1610.