KNOX—A Knox man has been charged with manslaughter and drunk driving after a crash resulted in the death of a Binghamton professor.
"He didn’t have a chance," Albany County Sheriff James Campbell told The Enterprise.

Justin Landauer, 27, of 417 Beebe Road, is charged with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor; and second-degree vehicular manslaughter, a felony.

Gary Lehman, 47, of Binghamton, was killed.

Landauer was arraigned in Albany County Supreme Court Friday. He pleaded not guilty.

According to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, Landauer was driving west on Route 443 in Knox at 8 p.m. on Thursday when his truck crossed the yellow lines and struck Lehman’s car coming the other direction.

Landauer was driving a 1999 Ford pickup truck and Lehman was driving a 1997 Saturn. The vehicles hit head-on.

Within minutes, police and rescuers were on the scene, Campbell said.

Lehman was flown to Albany Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 9:50 p.m.

Landauer and his passenger, his cousin Matthew Landauer, were transported by the Helderberg Rescue Squad to Albany Medical Center where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

According to the sheriff’s department, accident re-constructionists estimate Landauer’s truck was traveling at over 50 miles per hour, well over the 35 miles-per-hour speed limit.

Campbell said police use skid marks and other clues at the scene of an accident to determine speed.

At Albany Med, Landauer refused to give a blood sample for an alcohol test, the sheriff’s department says, but one was taken after a court order was obtained from Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi.

The sheriff’s department has not yet received the results of the test, Campbell said. However, Campbell said, Landauer failed field sobriety tests.

Campbell would not comment on whether or not Landauer told police he had been drinking that night.

Lehman was in the area visiting relatives, the sheriff’s department says. He was a father of three and a professor of mechanical engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton for over two decades.

Lehman’s colleague, James Pitarresi, chairperson of Binghamton’s mechanical engineering department, told The Enterprise Lehman was a respected educator who cared deeply for his students. For example, Pitarresi said, whenever a new technology came along, Lehman would immediately push for it to be used in teaching.
"Students would look forward to taking his classes," Pitarresi said.

The mood in the department this week is very somber, Pitarresi said, as students and faculty react in shock to Lehman’s death.
"My e-mail box is full," Pitarresi said. "The sudden loss just caught us by surprise."

Landauer’s family declined comment.

At the Albany County Courthouse on Friday afternoon, Landauer, wearing a black T-shirt and baggy, wrinkled jeans, looked pale and shaken as he approached the bench. He had a bruise over his left eye.
"You recklessly caused a collision between your vehicle and another, causing death," Teresi told Landauer.

Landauer was sent to Albany County jail without bail. He was scheduled to appear in Knox Town Court on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

—Nicole Fay Barr contributed courtroom reporting to this story.