SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) – A sports utility vehicle slammed into a guardrail and plunged off a highway Sunday, killing the driver.

The accident happened about 200 yards away from the site of a crash that killed former East Syracuse Mayor Jason Rhoades last week.

Police did not release the name of the victim pending notification of family, but said the driver was in his 50s.

The vehicle landed on its roof after careering off Interstate 81 and plunging 50 feet below, said police Sgt. Tom Connellan.

Authorities are reconstructing the accident to determine the cause, but said conditions were icy at the time of the crash.

A record low temperature of minus 15 degrees was set in Syracuse early Sunday, breaking the old record of 12 below set in 1966, the National Weather Service said.

“We’re dealing with icy conditions,” Connellan said. “The roadway was slick due to the temperatures.”

A section of the highway was shut down after the crash.

Last Friday, Jason Rhoades, 28, was traveling to Montreal on a snowmobile trip when his GMC Envoy flipped over a guardrail on I-81 and landed on its roof, 30 feet below the highway.

At age 25 Rhoades was sworn in as the mayor of East Syracuse, the youngest mayor in village history. He had served on the village’s Board of Trustees at age 19 and had been a member of the village school Board. Rhoades left the mayor’s office last spring after a two-year term.

AP-ES-01-25-04 1339EST