Horrific drink-driving case in NY

[J70]

Have you heard of a worse drink-driving case than this?

Just a bit of background - the accident took place last Sunday (July 26th), a little bit north of New York City. A woman, Diane Schuler, drove her minivan with five children, two her own, three of them her brother's, the wrong way down a major road, against three lanes of traffic, going almost two miles before crashing head-on into an SUV, killing herself, her three nieces, her two-year old daughter and three men in the SUV (the worst accident in Westcherster country for 75 years). The crash was so violent that her van exploded into flames and she left her leg behind her when she was thrown from the car. In the aftermath, it came out that she had rang her brother about half an hour beforehand, saying she didn't feel well and was having vision problems, but she kept going even though he asked her to stay where she was and he'd come and get them. It was after that she turned onto the northbound side of the Taconic Parkway and started driving south. Apparently cars were serving out of her way and quite a few people called the cops. There was loads of speculation afterwards about her possibly being disoriented after having a seizure or a stroke or something and, given the sheer carnage and the loss of four young children, it was a heart-breaking story that dominated the local news, with huge sympathy for all involved, including Diane Schuler.

Until yesterday...

Turns out that she was twice the legal limit for blood alcohol AND had smoked a joint within an hour of the crash. She crashed at 1.30pm, but had packed the kids and left the campsite in the Catskills at 9.30am! A broken 1.75 litre vodka bottle was lying in the front of the car and she apparently had drunk the equivalent of 10 shots (along with the joint)! And all the way from the Catskills, she had been tailgating and honking at cars to get out of her way, even crossing the grass median between the two sides of I87, a major motorway that heads up to Albany from NYC! Yet, no cops stopped her anywhere along the route. One can only imagine what the young kids went through - apparently the oldest, her 8 year old niece, had been on the phone to her father for a few minutes during the phone call a half hour before the crash, after which the driver threw the phone away! God knows what was going on!

Anyway, for anyone whose interested, the NY Times tells it better than me...

Horrific stuff...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/nyregion/05crash.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

[Puckoon]

Car accident losses are bad at the best of times, but that's just a sin. How can these things happen.

I happened across a 3 person fatality last evening, total freak accident but it's gonna be with me forever. A car in a southbound freeway lane swerved to dodge a piece of furniture that fell of a truck, lost control and flew over the median into the traffic coming in the north bound lane. Total carnage.

Those poor kids.

[J70]

A piece of furniture?!

I presume that guy will be up on criminal charges? Or had he long gone?

[Puckoon]

http://www.rgj.com/section/iphone?template=iphonefront#_wholeArticle


The charges are pending depending on the RPD investigation as to why the cabinet came out of the pick up.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

10 shots of alcohol only put her twice over the legal limit? Does that mena with only 5 shots she'd have been fine?!

Tragic altogether. The road's a dangerous place.

[tyssam5]

Not sure how they worked that out 0.19 being 10 shots? Especially in the 5"2' person. They did say in the article what way the husband went home was he going a different way, you'd think they would have followed each other? Sad case anyways.

[J70]

Not sure how they worked that out 0.19 being 10 shots? Especially in the 5"2' person. They did say in the article what way the husband went home was he going a different way, you'd think they would have followed each other? Sad case anyways.

Apparently it was something to do with the fact that he was driving a commercial vehicle - he couldn't take the route she was driving. (Could be a Sunday thing or something, I've no idea)

As to her alcohol consumption, perhaps they included the unabsorbed alcohol still in her stomach when she died. They referred to it in most of the coverage.

[nrico2006]

So did one of the children survive?

There was a similar case outside Lurgan on the M1 a few years back:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3199017.stm

[tyronefan]

commercial vehicles are not allowed on either the Saw Mill River Parkway or the Taconic Parkway at any time

There is a law in New York State that no commercial vehicles are not allowed on Parkways at all