Share and Follow
Left: Lydia Hanson (Carroll County State”s Attorney’s Office). Right: Richard Snyder (Fletcher Funeral Home).
A Maryland resident has received her sentence following a tragic incident in which her drunk driving resulted in the loss of a man’s life, occurring just a day after she faced charges for driving under the influence in the same area.
Lydia Hanson, aged 32, has been handed a nine-year prison term, as reported by the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office to Law&Crime. Her conviction on April 1 was for negligent vehicular manslaughter, leading to the death of 78-year-old Richard Snyder.
In addition to this conviction, Hanson was also found guilty of a separate DUI incident, for which she was given a one-year prison sentence that has been suspended.
The fatal event took place on March 16, 2025, when Hanson was traveling southbound in a Volkswagen on Route 97. At the same time, Snyder was driving his Chevrolet truck northbound, according to details shared by the prosecutorial agency on Facebook. Witnesses reported observing Hanson driving erratically and reaching speeds as high as 99 mph.
In a sudden and dangerous maneuver, she veered into the northbound lane, forcing several vehicles to swerve in order to avoid collisions. Ultimately, she collided head-on with Snyder’s truck.
Maryland State Police troopers responded to the crash site north of Maryland Route 26 around 2 p.m. that day, they said at the time. Snyder was brought by an ambulance to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hanson was flown by a helicopter to a regional trauma center. According to the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office, she “refused a blood test to determine her blood alcohol content.”
Troopers, however, secured a search warrant for the test, and once they took her blood and tested it, they discovered she had a blood alcohol content of 0.34, more than four times the legal limit. Investigators also determined that the speed limit where she was driving 99 mph at the time of the crash was 55 mph.
“Incredibly, the defendant had also been stopped for DUI the day prior and within a few miles of where the collision occurred,” prosecutors said.
The judge himself was critical of Hanson’s actions.
“These are the worst facts I have seen in any of these cases,” he said. “You didn’t intend to kill the victim, but you did intend the behavior that led up to it. The day before you were arrested and charged, you would think that would have been a wake-up call to you, and it wasn’t.”
Snyder is remembered in his obituary as having been “a lifelong car enthusiast, auto body and fender mechanic” who “could take apart and rebuild an entire car, but couldn’t quite get the hang of a remote to turn on his beloved car shows on TV.”
He left behind a wife, who he was married to for 52 years.