Husband Speaks Out in Taconic Drunk-Driving Crash

[mkrishnan]

(If anyone can find a previous thread on this accident, please tell me so I can merge -- I've done a few searches and couldn't find one, although it seems to me there is one).

Speaks out... sort of... well, really, offers no really plausible explanation for this odd and tragic event.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/nyregion/07crash.html?hpw

His voice cracking with emotion, the husband of the drunken driver who killed herself and seven others on the Taconic State Parkway spoke publicly Thursday for the first time since the July 26 crash, insisting that his wife did not have a drinking problem and affirming the health of their marriage.

The husband, Daniel Schuler, did not discount the toxicology report showing that his wife, Diane, was intoxicated and high on marijuana. But he and his lawyer said she must have had a medical problem that caused extreme disorientation and that may have led her to drink to excess. They cited a lump on her leg, a tooth abscess and a possible diabetic condition, and said she had not sought medical help for those problems.

...

The case, which was deemed a homicide after the toxicology results were released, has drawn intense scrutiny not only because of the death toll, but because Ms. Schuler, an accounting executive at Cablevision, was, by all appearances, a responsible mother.

The couple left their campground in Sullivan County that morning in separate cars: Mr. Schuler in his pickup with their dog and Ms. Schuler in a minivan with the five children. Witnesses have said that Ms. Schuler was sober and seemed her normal self. “We had a cup of coffee in the morning and packed the cars like we always do and headed out — just like every other weekend we go up there,” Mr. Schuler said on Thursday.

Her behaviour seems quite the mystery... how did she manage to get plastered while she had all the kids with her? If her surviving son survives, he's quite young, and he probably will have a lot of memory loss, but can he explain any of this bizarre story?

 

[killerrobot]

Her behaviour seems quite the mystery... how did she manage to get plastered while she had all the kids with her? If her surviving son survives, he's quite young, and he probably will have a lot of memory loss, but can he explain any of this bizarre story?

Very bizarre and very tragic.

It seems to me like it could have been brought on by some medical condition. A diabetic attack makes people behave very similarly to a drunk person, but I don't know how it could make the Blood Alcohol Level .19 or have placed 6 ounces of vodka in her stomach.

There's also 3+ unaccounted for hours between when they left the campsite and when she called her brother. It's also weird that she didn't just pull over to the side of the road and wait someone to pick her up if she was feeling disoriented.

This case needs a Dr. House or a Sherlock Holmes or both.

 

[mkrishnan]

Looks like answers are not particularly forthcoming, unless they're discovered in a civil trial...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/nyregion/19taconic.html?hp

Some particularly cryptic excerpts:

Alcohol and a chemical in marijuana were found in Ms. Schuler’s body after the crash, but Ms. DiFiore said, “There is no evidence that would lead us to believe that he had any knowledge that she was intoxicated or smoking marijuana.”

Ms. DiFiore said there was no evidence of any medical condition that could have led to the accident, and no evidence that Ms. Schuler was an alcoholic. Maj. William Carey of the State Police said Mr. Schuler answered many questions from investigators but “has not been forthcoming, perhaps, about marijuana use.”

A previous news report indicated an empty vodka bottle found in the vehicle:

Mr. Schuler did not address the vodka bottle that the police found in the wreckage.

Certainly, it seems possible she was unaware she consumed a bottle of vodka, and I guess it's possible she was somehow slipped marijuana, although this is the first time I've heard of a situation like this where the police would say that they take the possibility that the person was drunk and high without knowing it seriously... OTOH, the information also doesn't fit with the apparent lack of support for alcoholism....