BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A truck driver pleaded guilty in a 2017 Thruway crash which killed a beloved educator.

Kristofer Gregorek was driving a commercial truck which smashed into the back of a Honda driven by Ellen Volpe, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo School of Nursing.

Volpe, of Rochester, was also a wife and mother of two. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

"She was a wonderful mother, wife, nurse, teacher, researcher, and myself and my two sons miss her very much," said husband John McIntyre, who was on the phone with Volpe when she died.

New York State Police say Gregorek was using his phone when the Freightliner box truck, heading west on June 8, crashed in a construction zone between the Pembroke and Depew exits. Troopers say the Saratoga County man was shopping online and filling out a survey. The truck didn't brake and was going at least 70 miles per hour.

"You can't text while you're driving, you can't look at messages while you're driving a car. Anything can happen. In a split second, something can happen," said John Flynn, Erie County district attorney.

Sentencing for Gregorek on this count of manslaughter is scheduled for June 28. He faces up to 15 years behind bars.