Taconic van accident---

[kacaju]

It is possible that the families did not know the extent of her alcoholism. Or were in denial.

Yes, alcoholics can be very good at hiding their problem. While I am sure the family knows she *drinks* they may not have known how much.

 

[Mom2Nick]

Let's face it - she had to have been under the influence of SOMETHING. Who on earth coudl drive over a mile in the wrong direction on the highway and not have any clue?

 

[Hillbeans]

This is such a tragic story - with such an unexpected result. I just can't believe she was drining and smoking pot while driving the car with those poor children.

 

[luvmy3]

I am so saddened and sickened by this story. I gave her the benefit ofthe doubt when I first heard about the accident, I figured she didn't know the area/road and in some places (North of the accident) it can be easy to get on the wrong way. The Taconic isn't like a highway until you get down to Westchester. I never thought someone would put their own children, their own nieces and others at risk by getting that drunk and high and then driving. Dh said that he heard people were coming foward to say they saw her car on the Thruway and she was driving erratically passing people in the breakdown lane. If she was coming from the Thruway, she had to travel across the river to get to the Taconic, I can't believe she wasn't stopped before that. Maybe all those that lost their lives would have been saved

 

[TanyaLovesPooh]

When you get into a vehicle with alcohol or drugs in your body you are putting yourself in a position to potentially commit murder...not an accident.

My heart goes out to all those involved.

 

[allison443]

This story really upset me when it happened. On the news they showed the father of the three young girls (the driver's nieces) speaking at the funeral. The entire church was sobbing.
These revelations make it worse, somehow.

The driver did call her brother and according to him she said she was disoriented and had trouble seeing. He did call the state police at that point to try to find the minivan. The driver threw her cell phone out of the car at that point so there was no further contact. Now there is a lot of questioning whether the brother could tell she was drunk, not "disoriented" or sick. Also when her husband left the campsite that morning in another car to go fishing, he said she was fine. The authorities said the alcohol and marijuana use was recent-from that morning, shortly before the crash. In fact, she still had quantities of alcohol in her stomach that had not yet metabolized.

The state police have said they would like to talk to the family more, specifically I believe the husband and the brother, but the family is only giving limited information, according to the police.

 

[JessicaR]

It is believed that she left the campgrounds sober. Based on medical report findings. She had unmetabolized liquor in her stomach. She was drinking very quickly and in very large amounts. They found an open broken bottle of absolute in the van. The report finds the marijuana was smoked 15 minutes to one hour prior to the accident.

Her reckless actions indicate a person that had a death wish. I have to wonder if she set out to do this. Maybe suicidal? Her neighbor said things don't add up she never observed her drinking or smoking pot.

I think her husband is aware of what may have led her to these actions. He left the campgrounds with her at 9:30A in separate cars.

Her behavior seems desperate and reckless. Not exactly the way a habitual alcoholic would act. This is just my gut impression of the whole thing so far.

Shocking, the findings. Based on what was released prior to yesterday I thought they were going to find a medical reason behind it all.

I pray for these families to find peace.

 

[Missy1961]

Yes, alcoholics can be very good at hiding their problem. While I am sure the family knows she *drinks* they may not have known how much.

On the news report I watched (channel 11), they interviewed a recovering alcoholic who said her family had no idea of the extent of her drinking problem--until she herself was in an accident.

 

[sbell111]

I agree this is a horrific turn to an already awful story. My question is, do you think her family knew this all along, and have just been waiting for it to come out? ...

Your post reminded me of something.

Five years ago, I was in an accident. Here's my accounting of the experience from that day:

Didn’t even want to be awake, but I had to get to the airport. So there I was, on the interstate driving towards Nashville at 4am. I had only gone a few miles when I saw them. They looked like headlights coming in my direction. How could that be? I’m northbound on a divided interstate. Nope, they’re definitely on my side. Worse, it looks like they’re in my lane!

I’ve heard that if this happens, you should slow and get right. I had been driving in the left-most lane so I cut over a few lanes. Much to my surprise, the oncoming vehicle cut left. He was still coming at me, so I cut hard back to the left. So does he.

By now, the separation between the two vehicles had reduced greatly. I remember being close enough to tell that it looked like a truck rather than a car. I also remember thinking that I was not going to be able to avoid a collision.

Next, I remember feeling, but not hearing, the collision. At this point, I remember not being able to see anything because my airbags had deployed. I felt my WJ spinning and then I felt a smaller collision from behind. I had spun around and hit the center median with my passenger side quarter. My jeep then slid down the median for about twenty feet before stopping.

I sat there for a little bit, taking stock and finding my cellular phone. I tried my door, not really expecting it to open. Surprisingly, it did. I stepped out of the remains of my jeep, happy that neither leg or ankle had been broken. I dialed 911 as I looked around. A trucker and a few cars had already stopped. To my right, I could see that the pickup that had hit me pretty much hadn’t moved from the impact site. It was ablaze. I’m somewhat ashamed that I can remember not caring whether the owner was still in it or not.

I had to start twice to explain to the emergency operator that an accident had happened. Turns out they already knew. I discovered that my white shirt was covered in blood…mine. I reached up to my face and came back with a bloody hand. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had a pretty bad gash between my lip and chin. I also had a bad cut on the inside of my mouth and had bitten through my tongue in three or four places.

I retrieved my wallet and pda from inside my console, which was twisted strangely. I also had another call to make. There was no way that I was going to let my wife learn what happened from the police or hospital.

Police, fire and ambulances showed up within a few minutes of the accident. Paramedics began asking all of the questions to determine whether I had rattled my brain too hard or was in shock. They strapped me to a backboard and were about to put me in the ambulance when my wife arrived. I asked her to talk to the troopers and find out where my jeep was going to be taken, then meet me at the nearby hospital. I’ve found that in high stress situations, it’s best to give her something to do so she doesn’t break down. I called work from within the ambulance, sirens in the background. Needless to say, they were very understanding about my not making it to the airport.

I mentioned that the 911 operator was already aware of the accident. This is because a couple guys on the southbound side of the interstate spotted the truck on the wrong side about seven miles (and three exits) north of the accident. The police were unable to reach him in time. The two guys stopped at the scene and pulled the drunk out of his truck. I had gotten out of mine as they were coming for me.

I got pretty lucky. My knees hit the bottom of the dash, but sustained no serious injury. The plastic surgeon used three layers of stitches to put my face back together. The doctors decided to not treat the wounds to the inside of my mouth and my tongue. Apparently, they heal better without stitches.

Later in the day, we went to the towing yard to retrieve personal property. This was the first time that I had actually seen the damage to the jeep. At the accident site, I had only seen the unmolested driver’s side and rear. The pickup had hit my jeep on the passenger side of the front bumper. The entire front and passenger side of the jeep is destroyed. While my seating position was completely undisturbed, a passenger in the front passenger seat would probably have been killed immediately. Passengers in the back seat would have been seriously injured. I don’t understand how the drunk escaped serious injury. The cab of his truck was very distorted and he did not have the benefit of an airbag. Drunk luck, I guess. I wasn’t able to recover much of my stuff. My GPSr died a horrible death, as did many of my belongings.

A trooper that spoke to us in the hospital told us that he was on the way to the hospital that the other driver had requested to be taken. He would be taken to jail as soon as he was released.

That was yesterday. Today, I’m hobbling around with sore knees and shoulders. My face is swollen and in pain. I can’t really talk in a way that can be understood as I’m trying to do so without using my lips or tongue.

A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that I drive her Acura to the airport. It gets better mileage than my Grand Cherokee and is older, so dings are less painful. I hadn’t made the switch, however. I just enjoyed driving my Jeep. It's a good thing.

It turned out that my injuries were more substantial than I initially believed, as I ended up needing surgery to 'repair' some broken vertebrae.

Here's why your post reminded me of this drama: When the state trooper contacted the 19 year old's parents (who had lent him their pick-up), the mother's first question before she even learned of the accident was "Has he been drinking again?"

Here's a pic of the Jeep that saved my life:

 

[TanyaLovesPooh]

Here's a pic of the Jeep that saved my life:

Wow.

 

[starnightstarsky2000]

OMG!!!! What the heck is it with people that causes them to be so stupid. Clearly something was wrong with that women and her husband or family should have stopped her cause I have NEVER heard of anyone saddening deciding to get druck and high out of the blue and this was only a while after her husband had left? BS HE HAD to have known something was wrong and so should her brother I feel horrible for the children and adults who lost their lives due to this families unablities to deal with its family members. On this same note sbell111 I am so sorry that boy's parents also choose to not face their son problems. I am so glad that you survived your accident and I had wished you had never had to go through that. Or that anyone else does I don't understand why people can't simply hand the keys over, call a friend or a cab? I mean in every large city in the US there are cab companies and in over 35 states there are MADD groups who offer free rides home to anyone druck who needs a ride home. People who make choices like this just sicken me.

 

[Jennasis]

OMG!!!! What the heck is it with people that causes them to be so stupid. Clearly something was wrong with that women and her husband or family should have stopped her cause I have NEVER heard of anyone saddening deciding to get druck and high out of the blue and this was only a while after her husband had left? BS HE HAD to have known something was wrong and so should her brother I feel horrible for the children and adults who lost their lives due to this families unablities to deal with its family members. On this same note sbell111 I am so sorry that boy's parents also choose to not face their son problems. I am so glad that you survived your accident and I had wished you had never had to go through that. Or that anyone else does I don't understand why people can't simply hand the keys over, call a friend or a cab? I mean in every large city in the US there are cab companies and in over 35 states there are MADD groups who offer free rides home to anyone druck who needs a ride home. People who make choices like this just sicken me.

Ahem...

I see you are psychic? How wonderful that you have this insight into what the family of this sick woman "must've" known. Maybe they knew she had a problem, and maybe they didn't, but NONE of this is their fault. It is entirely the driver's fault.

Blaming the victims and Monday morning quarter-backing helps NOBODY.

As for the last bolded statement...reminds me of when my sister finally announced to the family she was bulemic. My dads advice was "Well, just stop throwing up." People who are sick do not think rationally about getting a designated driver or calling a cab or about simply NOT drinking themselves into oblivion.

 

[starnightstarsky2000]

Jennifer,
I am sorry to hear about what happened to your sister. I too have a story to tell about someone in my family who had problems with pain meds we watched him and when we realized that he seemed to be taking more then he should we interviended and he has now been in NA for 15 years because we noticed that he was having problems and we helped him. This women wasn't a teenage she was an adult women with 5 kids and was close enough to her family to have her nieces go on a camping trip with her. And for her to drive them home. And my point was clearly made when sbell111 said that then the police called the boy's mom who hit him she asked " Has he been drinking AGAIN"?

 

[Patch'sD]

This accident was in the local newspaper all week. Looking at the family and the community. Pretty much a lot of folks around here were convinced it was a medical problem. It was shocking to here that she tried to consume so much Vodka and Pot. Eight lives lost and four families destroyed due to this women.

 

[DebbieB]

There was a story on 60 minutes last weekend that was so sad and has bothered me since. A family was at a wedding, their little 8 year old girl was the flower girl. They showed videos of her at the wedding, beautiful little girl and so happy. They rented a limo to take them home so that they didn't have to worry about drinking & driving. On the way home (Long Island I think), a pickup truck got on the highway on the wrong side and smashed into the limo, killing the limo driver instantly. As they were trying to get out of the wreckage, the mom looked down and the little girl was decapitated! The pickup driver was very drunk and only had minor injuries. The main part of the story is he was charged with murder rather than vehicular homicide, which is a much lesser charge. He got 18 years to life I think. So sad.

 

[JessicaR]

The *******i Family have hired Lawyers.

A Hance family member intends to make a public statement Wednesday afternoon, a family friend said.

Attorney Marshall Neimark, of New City, who also represents the *******i family, said the family could pursue a civil suit against the owner of the minivan being driven by Schuler at the time of the crash.

Records indicate the minivan was registered to Warren Hance, of Floral Park, Schuler's brother.

A lawyer for the father and son killed by wrong-way drunk and drug-impaired driver Diane Schuler said the case bore "a strong fragrance of criminality" and anyone who was aware of her condition and allowed her to drive could "possibly be an accomplice."

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/...nce-of-criminality-in-taconic-crash-1.1350380

 

[C.Ann]

Infuriated doesn't even begin to describe how I feel..

I have zero tolerance for drinking and driving - I don't care if it's one drink or 10.. I've lost too many family members to self-centered idiots!!

I knew I shouldn't have clicked on that link..

 

[kacaju]

I feel horrible for the children and adults who lost their lives due to this families unablities to deal with its family members.

Just what do you expect the family members to do?

I have a brother who is an alcoholic. what do you expect me to do about HIS drinking?

I do not live with my brother, I do not really even talk to him, why? Because he is still a bit mad a me for calling the police on him one night when he tried leaving our other brothers house drunk. I was not even there, my SIL called to tell me he was trying to leave and was refusing to hand over the keys and let them give him a ride home. I hung up with her and called the police. He was in the car but the keys were not in the ignition so they didn't arrest him.
At that point he agreed to let our brother drive him home.

We did an intervention it *worked* for quite a few years. He is back to drinking and doesn't feel HE has a problem.

Yes I am aware my brother drinks, no I would not ever allow my kids to be in the car with him. BUT...I do not have any control over his life.
If he is at my house and I do not serve him any alcoholic drinks and yet he has some in his car to consume once he leaves my house, then how am I at fault if he leaves my house and kills someone?

Most alcoholics and drug abusers hide their problems, if she had vodka in the car it was probably because she may not have had the *chance* to drink it around the family while they were camping.

I am not trying to make excuses for what she did, it was a horrible thing but you cannot always blame something like this on the family.

 

[Imzadi]

Blaming her husband, family, friends, whomever isn't going to bring back any of the dead. My guess is that they will be living in their own special hell.

Actually, the law is that if a bartender or waiter knowingly serves a person too much alcohol and he then gets in a car & drives, the bartender or waiter can ALSO be held responsible.

I used to work for a high-end, celebrity catering company. Every once in a while we get some rich millionaire who's drunk too much. It is scary for the bartenders when the captain tells them not to serve Person X anymore. We don't know if this drunk is going to get a bottle at the liquor store on the way home, drink some more, toss the bottle & crash his car. Since he was seen at the event, the bartender could be charged, not the loquor store owner.

If the woman's family knowingly handed off those kids to her knowing she was drunk & high, they are accessories to murder.

The news said if she lived, that she'd be charged with murder right now.

I figured she didn't know the area/road and in some places (North of the accident) it can be easy to get on the wrong way. The Taconic isn't like a highway until you get down to Westchester.

If she was coming from the Thruway, she had to travel across the river to get to the Taconic,

The Taconic is extremely windy and hard to negotiate sober. Too bad she didn't hit a tree instead. The other two cars would have been spared.

Her reckless actions indicate a person that had a death wish. I have to wonder if she set out to do this. Maybe suicidal? Her neighbor said things don't add up she never observed her drinking or smoking pot.

I said I thought she had a death wish in my post. WHERE did she get the marijuana from? Buying a bottle of alcohol can be explained away, but people just can't buy pot at the corner drugstore. No one can tell me this is a one time occurrence.

 

[luvmy3]

Just curious but has it been made public where they were camping?