The Long Island mom behind the wheel in a fiery wrong-way crash that killed her and seven others along a New York state highway was reportedly drunk and had high levels of marijuana in her system, authorities said Tuesday.
The findings were part of a toxicology report that was conducted on 36-year-old Diane Schuler in the wake of the deadly July 26 crash along the Taconic State Parkway in Briarcliff Manor, The Journal News of Westchester reported on its Web site.
The findings were shared with relatives of the crash victims, which included Schuler’s 2-year-old daughter and three nieces.
Schuler was coming home to West Babylon from an upstate camping trip when she drove her Ford Windstar minivan against traffic for 1.7 miles along the northbound lane of the Taconic.
State police investigators said Schuler collided head-on with a Chevrolet Trail Blazer driven by Guy Bastardi.
Bastardi, his father Michael, and family friend Daniel Longo were all killed in the tragic crash.
Also killed were Schuler, her daughter Erin, and her three nieces, Emma Hance, 8; Alyson Hance, 7; and Kate Hance, 5.
Her 5-year-old son Bryan was the only survivor. He is currently recovering at the Westchester Medical Center in stable condition.
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Notes:
There is only one way to end this carnage on our highways. That would be to adopt “zero tolerance” — no alcohol or other intoxicating drugs of any kind in the driver’s body with severe enforcement penalties as provided for now in most jurisdictions. That will end most of it very quickly because nobody will be in any doubt that they are unfit to drive. Such is not the case this day as drivers are given leeway and room for doubt in their drunken minds.
Point: This did not have to happen. It did because “mom” thought she was OK to drive and that’s the problem.
It’s time to end it and we can if we have the will.
Pingback: Jack’s Newswatch » Blog Archive » Drunks
Until the courts start treating impaired driving like a criminal offence, all the laws in the world won’t make any difference. Although it’s been a few years since I’ve dealt with impair driving cases, they were always a nuisance since the evidence was invariably raked over the coals because no-one wanted to lose their licence.
How many cases have you seen tossed over nothing, Jack? I had a case tossed where the driver admitted in court he’d been drinking, where the breath samples went in as evidence but the judge decided there wasn’t sufficient grounds to prove the driver was truly impaired since I’d stopped him for hazardous moving violation (blew a red light) so my evidence regarding his driving pattern was short & sweet. The local Crown decided against appealing because it was a first offence… although it certainly wasn’t his last offence…
-Mac
I was at a wkend conference in Edmonton a while ago, where a course was going on for impaired drivers to get their license back. Some of them had a drivers abstract several pages long. All of them had several charges for drunk or impaired driving, over a number of years.
One had been involved in a fatal accident. All of them had mandatory breath things on their vehicles. Many got their first arrest as a teenager and was let off as it was a first offense.
Why not eliminate the first offense for any crime, and punish the culprit. There might not be a second offense. As far as first offenses go, it it probably the first time they have been caught, not the first time they did it.