8 Die in Crash on Taconic State Parkway

[southcitymom]

The fact that the call lasted NINE minutes is very odd to me....
I feel that is the key to what finally happened.....something that Diane was upset about, found out about....I do not know, but that is a long time to be on the phone, especially if one is feeling ill....certainly long enough for him to hear slurred speech, etc.....

I do think he realized something was wrong with her, but didn't associate it with alcohol because that was out of character with what he knew of her. I think that was also the conversation where she pulled over and put her niece on the phone to give him some landmarks of where they were.

The time span of that convo doesn't strike me as very long, but if I am following what you are thinking, you think he might have told her something that then caused her to go on a murder/suicide drive.

 

[Native New Yorker]

"Emma Hance called her father at 12:58 p.m. and said, “Daddy, there is something wrong with Aunt Diane and she is having trouble seeing and she is talking funny, she is slurring,” Mr. Ruskin said. That call was dropped after three minutes and Mr. Hance called back at 1:01 p.m., in a conversation that lasted nine minutes."

Emma called him first, then was cut off, then he called back....after that, the phone was discarded.
I think that she was already upset about something, and that is why she was drinking like that....
I think she told him she had had it, but for whatever reason, he did not believe her...I know if a relative of mine said that they could not see, etc. I would call the police at once, not just say to wait until I got there.....( so that tells me that her family had dealt with her drama and drinking before)
I do not think she intended to murder anyone, but just wanted to die. Unfortunately, she was not alone in the car...

 

[Noway]

If what he told her at 1:01 p.m. caused her to go on a murder/suicide rampage, I don't think it be possible for her BAC to get to .19 in 35 minutes (collision was at 1:35 p.m. approximately), would it?

Once she died, her body would have stopped metabolizing the alcohol, which is why there was still alcohol in her stomach.

I'm afraid we'll never fully understand the whys and hows of this case. It's so tragic.

 

[Trino]

"Witnesses said she drove in her lane perfectly - her driving was not indicative of an intoxicated motorist who swerves all over the road." Police said they don't believe the crash was a suicide.

Of course, this was prior to the toxicology tests, but it's interesting that she did not swerve as someone who was intoxicated would do.

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

 

[Noway]

But Mr. Ruskin said Mr. Schuler did not see the bottle that day, and was not sure whether his wife had packed the bottle in the bags he loaded into the minivan that Ms. Schuler drove from the campground.

“He did not pack it, he did not see it,” Mr. Ruskin said. “As far as he knows, it is still in the camper, but I haven’t been up there and none of the investigative staff has checked it out as of yet.”

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

I could have sworn I read an article yesterday that said the husband packed the bottle in the van.

I think I even posted the link and text related to the convo here at the time. . .


My bad. It was just "possible" ... he didn't say that Daniel had packed it ...

Ruskin said it was possible Daniel Schuler, who liked to have an occasional drink of vodka, placed the bottle into the minivan when he packed it with camping equipment the morning of the fatal crash.


http://www.newsday.com/long-island/n...show-1.1354626

 

[Trino]

I'm still not convinced that DS drove drunk. While I understand there are secret alcoholics, certainly someone would have smelled something on her breath either the day she left or sometime during her life. She stopped at McD - again no indication of drunkedness after 10 drinks. Who can have 10 drinks, then according to her niece, slur her words and have trouble seeing but not swerve a car? Where was she buying the stuff? While she may have tried to hide her drinking from family/friends, would she go as far as to buy the stuff at different liquor stores? What about her co-workers? Neighbors?

I've known secret drinkers. There was always a hush-hush about a smell on their breath or a rumor. Nothing in this case. Strange.

I sincerely hope her husband has another autopsy done.

 

[annkitty0630]

Thanks for this AWESOME post, I 100% agree with your insight and evaluation to this problem which is rampant in our society. I have lived my life being around alcholics and drug addicts. I positively believe we have to have uniform sentencing as well as rehab for addicts to break the cycle. Prison time is not the answer and I still think there is something more to this unfathonable occurence. I truly believe we need to look at other possibilites as the hubby who is very questionable himself???????

Hey adnoid,

I feel like it dilutes what our society considers to be murder in an unacceptable way. I don't mind if it's considered, based on the circumstances, but I think it's ridiculous to make it the go-to charge. I think, for the most part, someone driving impaired does so for one of two reasons - (a) they think they are fine to drive or (b) they are in a blackout and have no conscious understanding of the choice they are making.

Now, there are, of course, incidents where - (c) they are suicidal and don't care if they take someone out as long as they take themselves out, in which case, a murder charge on the dead person doesn't matter in the criminal sense or (d) they are sociopathic and don't care who they put in danger - I don't mind if (d) cases are considered for murder charges, I just think they are the exception rather than the rule.

Certainly, in that 60 Minutes article, the young man charged with Murder didn't seem (based on what the article put forth) to fall into the (c) or (d) category.

I think someone driving drunk when they think they are okay is very different than someone planning and carrying out a plan to take someone's life. That's why we have a legal category of manslaughter.

I am also bothered by how widely different the sentences people pull for DWI causing death are. 3 years for someone in this state.....18 years for someone in this state.....probation for some. I would like to see us move to something more uniform.

I have had people close to me in all positions (driving impaired and harming someone, driving impaired and causing harm to someone, driving impaired and causing harm to themselves....and also, driving impaired and making it home just fine) and I think it's a terrible scourge and I don't mind tough sentences being applied. However, I'll never consider it murder. MOO, of course - others obviously do.

 

[Bobbisangel]

I think the family of three men killed might disagree with you. They deserve answers. And anyone who breaks the law, if that is what happened here, needs to face whatever consequences that come with that.

But the one that broke the law is dead. Who is left to face the consequences?

 

[RJA00]

If this Husband is charged criminally, I will come back here and eat my hat and whatever crow is presented.

There will, of course, be civil suits for whatever insurance money is available. The mother's estate may also be pursued if civil verdicts exceed the insurance money available, but the husband's property will be safe - he cannot be held accountable for his wife's negligence unless it can be proven that he knew she was loaded or would get loaded on the drive home and, as I've said before, that's NOT going to happen.

MOO.

I will be at the table with you
since there was eyewitness at McDonalds saying she was fine, I just dont see how father could be investigated about anything

 

[SewingDeb]

Charges unlikely for husband in NY wrong-way crash

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_wrong_way_crash

 

[Native New Yorker]

All I can say about people at Mcdonalds, is that not everyone is observant...and if she was used to drinking, or not that drunk while in there, what was there to see or notice?

As for the fact that no drinking buddies have come forward, now who would want to admit to partying with this woman, given what has happened?

I still firmly believe that she was a heavy drinker, and had been one for many years, and that she snapped over something......

 

[Native New Yorker]

Vodka....my ex drank it, and a good friend of mine, who has a drinking problem does....you can smell it on them, as it comes out of their pores.....that is a myth that vodka does not smell!

 

[Bobbisangel]

None of us know how long this mother had been drinking...how often she drank... how much...or if she did. We are assuming a lot just because she had such a high blood level of alcohol when she died. For all we know she discovered the bottle of vodka in the van at McDonalds...the bottle that they carried back and forth during the summer to the camping site...and because she was upset about something and she wanted out of her marriage...she decided to have a drink. One drink could have led to another and another and another. It's hard to understand why the husband didn't take some of the kids in his car with him for the ride back.

I can understand where the husband is coming from. He said his wife would have a social drink but he had never seen her drunk. If she was doing a lot of drinking she probably hid it from him which would have been easy to do because of his work schedule. So as far as he knows she didn't drink to an extreme.

I think this husband is trying to hang onto the memories he has of his wife and the person that she was...that everyone else knew her to be. His denial is probably his saving grace right now. He not only lost his wife and baby girl but also 3 nieces. He has to cope with 3 other lives lost in the accident. This guy is going through a lot right now.

What happened was a horrible tragedy and a lot of people are suffering because one woman for some reason decided to drink and drive. I don't know Diane but I don't think she was some evil woman who set out to kill her own baby girl an herself plus her nieces along with three innocent people just driving down the road. I think she was the woman that everyone described and that hasn't changed. It sounds like her life just went out of control for whatever reason and this horrible accident happened.

 

[6angels]

Charges unlikely for husband in NY wrong-way crash

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_wrong_way_crash

GOOd. I know a lot of people want SOMEONE to blame or to be punished but HE is not the one IMO. He is already being punished and IMO had NOTHING to do with the crash.

 

[Lexington]

I think the 3 minute cut off call from the little girl telling her father that Diane was slurring was probably ended by Diane. The father then called back and there was a 9 minute phone call, who knows if the little girl was able to regain possession of the cell phone. Diane got the cell phone away from her and went into her I don't feel well, etc. To me the tell tale sign was that the phone was not brought back into the car thus cutting off all communication between the car and the father and whoever else might have tried to contact her. She then drove purposefully down the Taconic against traffic and crashed into the SUV. I haven't seen if there were any swerve marks indicating that she tried to avoid the crash. Has anybody?

 

[JBean]

All I can say about people at Mcdonalds, is that not everyone is observant...and if she was used to drinking, or not that drunk while in there, what was there to see or notice?

As for the fact that no drinking buddies have come forward, now who would want to admit to partying with this woman, given what has happened?

I still firmly believe that she was a heavy drinker, and had been one for many years, and that she snapped over something......

Another poster reported there was a video from McDonald's and all seemed fine. I'll see if I can find info.

 

[Trino]

She may never have had drinking buddies, but she was around others for an extended periods of time. Alcohol smells no matter how hard you try to cover it up. I wonder what her co-workers are saying or if they suspected. As I previously posted, when someone works or interacts daily with an alcoholic, there are always rumors. In this case I've heard none.

 

[drip~drop]

I'm still not convinced that DS drove drunk. While I understand there are secret alcoholics, certainly someone would have smelled something on her breath either the day she left or sometime during her life. She stopped at McD - again no indication of drunkedness after 10 drinks. Who can have 10 drinks, then according to her niece, slur her words and have trouble seeing but not swerve a car? Where was she buying the stuff? While she may have tried to hide her drinking from family/friends, would she go as far as to buy the stuff at different liquor stores? What about her co-workers? Neighbors?

I've known secret drinkers. There was always a hush-hush about a smell on their breath or a rumor. Nothing in this case. Strange.

I sincerely hope her husband has another autopsy done.

At autopsy DS had undigested vodka still in her belly. She was drinking.

 

[southcitymom]

"Emma Hance called her father at 12:58 p.m. and said, “Daddy, there is something wrong with Aunt Diane and she is having trouble seeing and she is talking funny, she is slurring,” Mr. Ruskin said. That call was dropped after three minutes and Mr. Hance called back at 1:01 p.m., in a conversation that lasted nine minutes."

Emma called him first, then was cut off, then he called back....after that, the phone was discarded.
I think that she was already upset about something, and that is why she was drinking like that....
I think she told him she had had it, but for whatever reason, he did not believe her...I know if a relative of mine said that they could not see, etc. I would call the police at once, not just say to wait until I got there.....( so that tells me that her family had dealt with her drama and drinking before)
I do not think she intended to murder anyone, but just wanted to die. Unfortunately, she was not alone in the car...

I hear you. Still, I think she "drank like that" because that's what she did and not because any specific thing led her on a bender. Frankly, double the legal limit is not a lot of an experienced drinker.

 

[southcitymom]

None of us are ever going to really know what DS's drinking habits were. If the BAC levels are to be believed, she kept this part of her life well-hidden. She may NEVER have taken a drink at work for fear that an adult would catch on, but started and binged only after she got off work - where her home responsibilities with 2 young children and a husband at a night shift job afforded her plenty of cover.

Addicts are ritualistic, but those rituals vary from addict to addict and they can change over the addict during the course of his/her addiction.

There is also of course the possibility that she was in the early stages of the progression of the disease....where family and friends and coworkers had no idea, but her useage was truly starting to ramp up in an alarming way. Addicts aren't created overnight. There is a process for each of us. This is the point where many addicts start to experience consequences - sadly, her first major consequence may have been this tragic collision.

I do understand the desire to explain all this and come away with an explanation that makes us feel like we have learned something. Unfortunately, addict behavior is often inscrutable and deeply hidden - all we can really learn is that we cannot ever truly know what is going on inside of another human being - and that's a scary realization.