8 Die in Crash on Taconic State Parkway

[dgfred]

In regards to marijuana levels, I don't know much about blood tests, but I know with urine tests it can depend on how heavy of a user a person is. If a person is a chronic user, the levels will be high and stay high, even if they don't use for a few days. If the person is an occasional smoker and only has a little, it can still stay in the urine for 3 days. Essentially, really high levels mean chronic user and/or just used. Lower levels mean that they are a chronic user who hasn't used in a while, or they are an occasional user.

Marijuana will stay in the system quite awhile... about a month. So it is possible she had smoked over the weekend, but the drinking is another deal altogether.

 

[southcitymom]

Forgive me cause I'm still trying to comprehend all this....do we know yet if the levels of THC are high, like you are talking about Lyn101? Guess I'm asking do we know enuf yet to theorize if she was a chronic user or not?

The levels of THC were "trace."

 

[Lyn1001]

I do respect your opinion Lyn but the Westchester DA is definitely calling it homicide at this point. And if she had survived you can bet she'd be prosecuted for these deaths.

I agree that she did commit homicide, but I do not believe, with the evidence we have, that it was a planned homicide. Does that make sense?

 

[southcitymom]

SCM, although I've never been addicted to drugs or alcohol I think I do understand your explanation. I know that the person who does something like this doesn't intentionally sit there and go "Gee, I think I'll get really wasted, put my kids in the car and see what happens." It's a sickness. It's an addiction. You did something to get clean and for that I applaud you. You learned from your issues and you moved on. That's all anyone can hope for.

I don't think this was her first time in this situation either. I am sure she knew how to hide a lot from family, friends and coworkers. But like I just said to bogeygal earlier, I wanted answers to why this happened but I so badly wanted the answer to have been beyond Diane's control. Undiagnosed diabetes, a stroke, a migraine, something that she wasn't responsible for.

And although I know addiction is a sickness and some would argue one that so tightly imprisons people that her actions were beyond her control, I have to tell you I have a problem with it. As much as I do understand where you are coming from and what you've battled. I just can't get past her choice and the horrible consequences of her actions.

I promise you that I am not saying she isn't responsible for her choices - we are all responsible for our choices unless we have severe mental illness. I'm just saying that I empathize with her on every single level.

 

[southcitymom]

I have to respectfully disagree about her having to be suicidal/homicidal. Alcoholics (if she was one) can often be well over the limit, including at a level most people would be unconscious at, and be acting normal. They also don't feel like they have any impairments. They feel they are perfectly fine, and if they've driven like that before with no issues, it just reinforces the idea that they have no problem driving after drinking. At this point I don't think there is enough to say this was on purpose just because she was over the limit and had THC in her system.

That said, I do enjoy reading your posts and often agree with you!

I couldn't agree with you more. Without more information, there is simply no reason to think she was consciously suicidal/homicidal. She was drunk. I suspect that, like me and many others, she had driven impaired a number of times and never thought a thing about it or thought she was fine to drive.

 

[southcitymom]

Regarding them investigating it as a homicide, that could mean one or two things in my book: 1) the authorities know something we don't or b) some states (there was a 60 minutes article this Sunday on this) are now charging drunk drivers who cause a death with murder instead of manslaughter.

 

[SleuthyMama]

SCM, I know you're not. And I get it, I really do. This case has just worn me down.

So many children in this world who's lives are so completely affected by the choices made by their parents/caregivers.

 

[SleuthyMama]

There will be a live presser at 4 PM today if anyone is interested:

http://www.lohud.com/article/200908...-Watch-police-press-conference-streaming-here

I won't be at my computer otherwise I'd transcribe for those who can't see it.

 

[Nessa]

Hi all:

From press conference: Autopsy a week ago revealed tox blood alcohol 0.19%. She had approximately 6 grams of alcohol in stomach yet to be metabolized. High level of THC. Level THC 113 ng/mL.

Recovered broken 1.75 liter of vodka in vehicle. It appears she was drinking while driving or stop and drink based on stomach contents.

Answering questions now.

 

[Nessa]

accidentally hit thumbs down thingy...but I guess it applies...this case is so upsetting.

 

[Nessa]

wow...toxicologist just said equivalent of 10 drinks still in her.

Marijuana was recent - 15 minutes to one hour prior to accident.

 

[bogeygal]

wow...toxicologist just said equivalent of 10 drinks still in her.

Marijuana was recent - 15 minutes to one hour prior to accident.

Marijuana 15-60 minutes before the crash! The children were all in the minivan! Could LE be correct on that?

Edit to add: I guess LE was correct about the timing of the pot smoking, it's in the news article below. Shocking to say the least.

 

[STEADFAST]

Can't express how flabbergasted I am! How could she do that??? And why'd she call her brother and tell him she was disoriented? Wouldn't she know it was because she'd been drinking? Is there any way this could have been set up???

 

[Julespa]

I am fuming! What kind of a person drinks and smokes pot then rides around with kids, she was drinking vodka AND smoking pot with the kids in the van!!!!!!!

 

[bogeygal]

Lastest news article, contains info from presser

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...y_on_the_taconic_killing_8_was_drunk_on_.html

Snipped:

Death driver Diane Schuler drank 10 ounces of vodka and smoked pot behind the wheel before her wrong-way crash that killed eight people on the Taconic State Parkway, police said on Tuesday.

Schuler's blood alcohol level was .19 - about two-and-a-half times the legal limit, investigators confirmed Tuesday. She had 6 grams of unmetabolized alcohol in her stomach when she died.

Investigators said they found a broken 1.75 liter bottle of Absolut vodka at the crash site. They said she smoked a significant amount of marijuana 15 minutes to one hour before she crashed.

Relatives are not cooperating with police, who are attempting to learn more about the circumstances of the crash, officials said.

State Police first learned the toxicology results last Friday, but decided not to reveal the information until the victims were buried.

Police told Schuler's family and relatives of the three other victims the findings Friday.

 

[RR0004]

So, she WAS driving erratically, it seems - early articles seemed to indicate that she was keeping it steady. I'm still completely convinced this was a physical or psychic event and not "premeditated" in any way shape or form. My continued prayers for the family.

Unfortunately, I heard today she was intoxicated...though there was some confusion about how the news got the tox results.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...y_on_the_taconic_killing_8_was_drunk_on_.html

 

[Invisible]

Lastest news article, contains info from presser

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...y_on_the_taconic_killing_8_was_drunk_on_.html

Snipped:


Relatives are not cooperating with police, who are attempting to learn more about the circumstances of the crash, officials said.

Hmmmm...interesting. Well, the relatives have probably known all along since the bottle of vodka was found at the scene.

Was she just trying to deaden the pain because she knew she was going to crash the van?

I still don't understand why she called her brother.

She was angry.

 

[bogeygal]

Hmmmm...interesting. Well, the relatives have probably known all along since the bottle of vodka was found at the scene.

Was she just trying to deaden the pain because she knew she was going to crash the van?

I still don't understand why she called her brother.

She was angry.

There are still unleft answers to questions we have. Maybe we'll get more tomorrow...

I agree with you that someone in the family might have known she had a problem, but if any of them did, they possibly didn't think it was serious enough, or that she would drive drunk with 5 children in the car.

From what the family describes, this woman was a caring loving mother. Witnesses at the camp describe the fun the family was having on vacation. The vodka/marijuana in the car, with the kids doesn't make sense now. There is so much more to this story, and I hope we learn why she took the risk that day, endangering and ultimately killing 8 people.

 

[southcitymom]

There are still unleft answers to questions we have. Maybe we'll get more tomorrow...

I agree with you that someone in the family might have known she had a problem, but if any of them did, they possibly didn't think it was serious enough, or that she would drive drunk with 5 children in the car.

From what the family describes, this woman was a caring loving mother. Witnesses at the camp describe the fun the family was having on vacation. The vodka/marijuana in the car, with the kids doesn't make sense now. There is so much more to this story, and I hope we learn why she took the risk that day, endangering and ultimately killing 8 people.

I doubt very very seriously that this was her first time drinking and using with kids in her care or her car. A person who needs to consume what she consumed early in the day and while driving a bunch of children is a person with a pretty well-entrenched addiction.

As I said before, it is easy to drink alcohol without the kids knowing - a little more tricky with weed, although if she was a cigarette smoker (and many addicts are), the kids would have been conditioned to an extent and it wouldn't seem that odd - they were young kids. Also, she could have stopped at any gas station and run into the restroom and smoked - wouldn't be hard.

I'm uncertain what the family might have known. If they are a drinking family and were drinking on this camping trip then it wouldn't be odd for there to be vodka in the car - she could have been carrying it home from the trip.

Families can often be the last to know how bad an addiction issue is - just the little bit I gather about her personality leads me to believe she might have gone to some real lengths to hide the amount of her using.

ETA - even at the apex of my "using while parenting" my family would have hands-down described me as a caring, loving mother and, in many ways, I was.

 

[Openmind]

I will confess I have nothing in my life to connect with this woman. I appreciate Southcitymom's candid comments -- as always, but I still wonder how anyone could consume 10 alcoholic drinks and smoke pot and not know they are a danger to themself and others. Was no one around this woman before she took off with all those kids to see her condition -- even if only emotionally. How was she acting that she had this immediate need to drink all this alcohol as she drives? It just defies my understanding -- and now all these families are left to suffer the results of her actions. Is it really that easy is it to hide an addiction this egregious?