Posted on 08/04/2009 8:08:34 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – A mother drank vodka and smoked marijuana while taking a vanload of children home from a weekend camping trip that ended in disaster when she went the wrong way on a highway and crashed into an SUV, killing eight people, police said Tuesday.
Diane Schuler, who died along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces in her red minivan, had more than 10 drinks of alcohol in her system and a high level of the main ingredient in marijuana, authorities said. A broken 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in her wrecked minivan, police said.
The revelations from the 36-year-old Long Island woman's autopsy helped explain how the woman her family called "an accomplished working mother who always put her children before any other priorities" wound up driving the wrong way for nearly two miles on a suburban parkway before slamming into the SUV.
The July 26 crash on the Taconic State Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, also killed three men in the SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son, in her minivan, survived.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
and all I hear about is the danger of second-hand smoke? This is such a nightmare.
How could this woman smoke dope and drink vodka putting herself into oblivion and drive a van with those kids inside? And her hubby says everything was fine when he left her a few minutes before? Something’s rotten in Long Island and in Westchester County...
My feeling from what I read is that this was a deliberate act. That is, it was not simply confusion.
“She was a constant, doting presence in her nieces’ lives, and our extended family admired her competence, ease with children and sense of humor,” it said. “Never has there been a more responsible and trusted friend or caregiver.”
Words fail me. Prayers!
I agree! It reminds me of the aunt who undressed her neice and nephew on the highway and marched them accross that highway at night. All were killed. The aunt had mental problems and bi-polar disease but it was known that she had this problem.
Suicide?
Divorce perhaps, work/money.issues?
I bet she was texting too. All the non-english shortcut crap really helps drunks type faster.
The evidence would suggest she continued to consume alcohol AFTER getting behind the wheel.
I agree. Suicide/homicide fueled by dutch courage.
I thought of that story, too, but didn’t know that woman in Mass. was known to have mental problems before she killed herself and her niece and nephew.
Wasn't she the only adult in the vehicle?
“Wasn’t she the only adult in the vehicle?”
Yes, the oldest kid was maybe 9. But still, this is a startling revelation. And, I mean, how drunk was she? To go for miles the wrong way, in broad daylight? And wouldn’t the family have known her to have a drinking problem, if she was as big a drunk as one would have to be? And you’d let a person like that drive a van full of kids?
I don’t know, it seems a wee bit fishy to me.
Maybe I should write to the flaggers at the white house. (shameless tagline plug)
I feel the same way, this doesn’t pass a smell test, this woman was either a chronic drunk/doper (accomplished mother my foot, accomplished mothers don’t drive drunk with or without their kids in the car) or something terrible happened that set her off on a binge with all those innocent children onboard... it says the 8-year-old called her father enroute... why? Fear??? I know I would have been terrified at 8 to ride in a car trip as described here.
In my younger days I drank a beer or two where I shouldn't have by putting it in a large travel mug (The mug I use everyday is 22 ounces, and I have seen even bigger ones.), she could have easily done something simular and everyone in the van might have thought she was drinkting coffee, but in truth she could have been drinking straight vodka.
I drive by the scene of the accident on a regular basis, I'm glad this [a] didn't happen to me, and [b] this didn't happen on a day I had to be in that area....
May they all rest in peace...
If she left the site at 9:30AM she should have been at the Tappen Zee bridge at 11:30AM not 1:00 PM when she called her brother . So it appears she was taking breaks along her route. I would guess she stopped that car in a secluded or wooded place to drink the vodka or smoke the pot.
I suspect if every accident where alcohol was involved would also test for marijuana, we would find that marijuana or other drugs are often involved as well....
I get sick of people down playing the role of drugs, legal or illegal, in causing so many accidents or incidents.....
True. Good post.
One of my rules with my friends is there is always a DD no matter what.
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