Diane Schuler
I had a very hard time starting this story. When I first read about what Diane Schuler had done, I knew I had to write about her. Soon, it became more than just a story to me. It became almost an obsession, as I was driven to find out all I could about this 36-year-old woman, her family, and that fateful morning in late July.
By all accounts, Diane Schuler was a superb mom, doting on her daughter Erin, 2, and son Bryan, 5, and her husband Daniel was head over heels in love with her. It seemed that she had everything she could ever dream of, and the Schulers appeared to everyone to be a strong, happy family.
But Diane Schuler was hiding a dirty little secret. She was a closet alcoholic – a binge drinker to be precise. Every now and then, for no reason in particular, Diane Schuler would drink. And drink. And drink. She would drink so much in such a short amount of time she would become delirious, and in time, unconscious. Diane also enjoyed smoking a little pot on occasion, and there were some reports I read that said she had insomnia and fired up a joint every night as a sleeping aid, but I couldn’t confirm that.
These drinking bouts were few and far between as far as I could tell, and there is some doubt about how much her husband either knew or chose to believe about his wife’s drinking problem. “I never saw her drunk since the day I met her,” said Daniel Schuler. My experience, and I have quite a lot of it, has been that you don’t live with a 
person for years and not wind up knowing everything about that a person’s drinking and drugging habits. On the other hand, there’s no saying how powerful Daniel’s denial actually was.
And that brings us to the morning of July 26th, 2009. The Schulers were wrapping up the annual family camping trip at Hunter Lake Campground in New York State’s Catskill Mountains. Everyone was in an upbeat mood as as Diane, Daniel, Diane’s brother, Warren Hance, and his wife packed up the Schuler’s red 2003 Ford Windstar minivan for the ride home to Long Island.
The plan was for Diane Schuler to take all the children and leave early, stopping at McDonald’s for breakfast along the way. There were no signs of trouble as she set off with her two children, Erin and Bryan, along with the Hance’s daughters, Emma, 8, Alyson, 7, and Kate, 5. At 
some point, Diane Schuler stopped to purchase a pain reliever at a convenience store, and reportedly there was still no signs of anything being wrong.
But shortly after that, as she drove down New York State Route 17 at the border between Sullivan and Westchester counties, something went terribly wrong. Diane Schuler got ahold of a 1.75-liter bottle of Absolute Vodka that the Schulers had brought up to the lake, and took a couple of healthy slugs from it. For the next sixty miles she drove aggressively enough that people would remember her minivan – She tailgated, she laid on the horn, she passed cars recklessly, shouting obscenities 
as she went by.
Witnesses also told New York State Police said the van was straddling two lanes, veering from one lane to another, and one witness said it appeared as if Diane Schuler were attempting to pass him on the shoulder of the highway. Another witness said the van drove across a grass divider at a service area on NY Route 87.
State police said while they can’t be absolutely certain the driver was Diane Schuler, the description of the vehicle and occupants and the time the incidents were reported “lead them to believe they are one in the same.”
Diane Schuler continued to hit that bottle of Absolute, and to hit on a joint while she drank. eventually, Diane started to feel a little, well, under the weather. She grabbed he cellphone and called her brother Warren, who from what I could gather was on the road 20 to 30 minutes behind her. She told him, she wasn’t feeling well, and she was sick to her stomach. She 
never mentioned the booze or the pot. He told her to pull over and wait for him – something about her voice told Warren his sister Diane was more than just sick. She told him she would be fine and continued on her way.
Warren Hance called his sister back. By now she had pulled over, Diane Schuler was teetering on the edge of drunken delirium. Again Warren ordered her to stay put – he would be there in just a few minutes, and he would drive them the rest of the way home. She hung up on him. He called back again and asked to speak to his oldest daughter, 8-year-old Emma. He could sense the panic in her voice.
“There’s something wrong with Aunt Diane!”
It get’s a little hazy here as to exactly what happened and in what order, but it is sure that Diane Schuler had again pulled over to the side of the road. Her niece had handed the phone back to her, or her brother called back again, I’m not sure which, and Diane had one last 
conversation with Warren Hance. She said something about having tunnel vision, which is very common in people who are extremely intoxicated. Warren begged her a final time to stay where she was – Diane Schuler tossed the phone out of the car and sped off.
At the intersection of Route 267 and the Taconic State Parkway, Diane Schuler finally made the fatal, tragic mistake she was almost fated to make that morning. She enter the Taconic going southbound on the northbound lanes. She never saw the “wrong way” and “one way” sign on the exit ramp she used to get on the parkway. She drove 1.7 miles like she was sober as a judge, straight as an arrow and centered between the white lines in the far left lane, until, at about 1:35 p.m., her minivan slammed head-on into a Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by Guy Bastardi, 49, and occupied by his father Michael, 81, and a close family friend, Daniel Longo, 74, heading to the regular Sunday family pasta dinner. Witnesses say the impact sounded like a massive explosion.
The Yonkers, NY, men never had a chance. All three were all killed instantly.
After the minivan crashed, it rolled down a hill and burst into flames. Passers-by pulled over and began pulling kid after kid out of the wreck, but it was a wasted effort. Erin, Emma, Alyson, and Kate were dead, as was Diane Schuler. Only little Bryan survived the crash with severe head injuries. One First Responder, the chief of a local volunteer fire department with 30 years of experience, said it was the worst scene he had ever witnessed. There were dead bodies, some seemingly much too small, laid out all over the 
Taconic State Parkway.
During Diane Schuler’s autopsy, it was determined that she had a blood alcohol content of .19 – more than twice the legal limit in New York State. Not only that, but she still had 6 grams of raw alcohol in her stomach. In other words, Diane Schuler was drinking right up until the moment she died, and her level was still going up. The Medical Examiner also determined she had smoked marijuana within an hour of her death at the most, but probably in the last 15 minutes.
In spite of the overwhelming evidence against Diane Schuler, the Schuler family circled the wagons and made a concerted effort to convince people that Diane wasn’t drunk when she destroyed most of their next generation. They said it was a stroke. They insisted that a lump on Diane’s leg must have been an embolism, and that it broke free, traveled to her brain and cause her symptoms of intoxication.
This one was my personal favorite; Diane Schuler suddenly developed diabetes (To be fair, she had some trouble regulating her insulin levels during her last pregnancy, but that cleared itself up after Erin was born), so she used the vodka to get her glucose levels corrected. I swear to god, Daniel Schuler’s lawyer, Dominic Barbara, spoke words to that effect at a press conference. The same press conference, I might add, that Babara came up with the 
great “Anbesol” conspiracy. He tried to convince reporters that the Anbesol topical pain reliever Diane Schuler was using for a painful abscessed tooth she had somehow cause a false positive reading for alcohol.
Daniel Schuler sobbed and begged and pleaded with us to believe that his wife hardly ever drank. He told reporters that he never once saw her drunk or high. His beautiful, perfect wife was no alcoholic.
Not once did he mention the Bastardis, The Longos, or even his in-laws, the Hances, nor did he offer any condolences. Daniel Schuler had no tears for the victims.
Meanwhile, the Longos and the Bastardis were in hell. Not only did they have to deal with the grief of losing their loved ones, they now had to watch this farce play itself out in the media. Roseann Guzzo, Michael Bastardi’s daughter, said the Schulers’ denials came as “a blow” to the family.
“It’s like we’re being victimized all over again. I feel numb.”
Warren Hance and his wife chose to split from Diane Schuler’s family after this performance, instead forming a bond with the Bastardis and Longos as the three families mourned their dead.
The final insult came on August 29th, when a private investigator hired by Diane Schuler’s husband, Daniel Schuler, who obtained the findings of the Westchester Medical Examiner, said there is no evidence of cirrhosis of the liver or other diseases common to alcoholics.
Investigator Tom Ruskin said the lack of evidence of long-term alcoholism backs up the claims of “dozens upon dozens” of people who said she did not have problems with alcohol.
“To take that leap of faith, to believe that this woman took 10 shots, possibly in a 48-minute period – certainly defies logic – defies common sense and substantiates to a certain sense the family’s story, the witnesses’ story, that this is inconsistent with her personality.”
What Mr. Ruskin failed to mention was that the Autopsy report also failed to show any signs of the ailments Diane Schuler’s family is trying to use as excuses for Diane’s behavior on the day of the crash. And there is nothing that explains away the .19 BAC, the 6 grams of alcohol still in her stomach, and the extremely high levels of THC in her bloodstream.
And then there were Diane Schuler’s co-workers, who told the New York newspapers that she would drink after work on a regular basis. She had a favorite watering hole where she would enjoy a few of her favorite drinks, screwdrivers, or course, made with vodka and orange juice. Some said in the last two months Diane Schuler’s drinking had picked up, as she expressed some unhappiness with her marriage and her career.
As I researched this story, and read about the machinations the Schulers went through in there attempt to absolve Diane of any blame for what amounts to the murder of 7 innocent people, I felt like I was reading some of the ridiculous comment we get on PYSIH by family members, defending people who are so painfully guilty it dumbfounds most of us that these people can believe the things they are saying. Then I realized how they do it.
An open minded person – one who is looking for the truth – collects as many facts as he can, and draws a conclusion from those facts. He uses his experience and knowledge to discount false leads and bogus information, and hopes he comes up with the truth. Because that’s what the goal is, isn’t it, to find the truth?
Now, folks like Diane Schuler’s family, they go about things differently. They start at the end – they already know what the answer they’re looking for is. They’re desperate to get the facts to back up their “conclusion”. So they find hired gun “experts” to interpret evidence with their slant, pay lawyers like Dominic Barbara, who are willing to say and do anything if the price is right, to work for them. They ignore any evidence that doesn’t fit into their “answer”.
In my opinion, there is no room for argument. Diane Schuler may not have been a full blown alcoholic yet, but she was well on her way to becoming one. And there is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind, anyone who doesn’t have an agenda that is, that she was wasted out of her mind when she caused the death of those four little children and those three innocent men.
As I close out this story, I’d like to remind the Diane Schuler’s family about a few things that seem to have slipped their minds in their rush to salvage Diane’s reputation.
Erin Schuler, aged 2; Emma Hance, aged 8; Alyson Hance, aged 7; Kate Hance, aged 5; Michael Bastardi, aged 81; Guy Bastardi, aged 49; Daniel Longo, aged 74.
Remember them?
09/04/09 – UPDATE: DANIEL SCHULER AND DOMENIC BARBARA APPEAR ON LARRY KING LIVE
Daniel Schuler and Dominic Barbara have been at it again. On Monday night, September 1st, the pair appeared on Larry King Live and once again denied Diane Schuler was drunk when she drone the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and slammed in the Guy Bastardi’s SUV head-on, killing herself and seven others, including 4 children aged 8 and under.
This was all brought on by the release of Diane Schuler’s final autopsy results, which showed no signs of long term alcohol abuse. As I stated before, it also showed no signs of a stroke, diabetes an embolism, or any of the other ridiculous medical excuses the Schuler family has tries to use to excuse Diane’s behavior before in the hours before the crash.
Diane Schuler’s Autopsy Report
Now Diane Schuler’s family wants her body exhumed for a second autopsy. From what I have been hearing from experts, this is an excellent development. There are so many ways this can blow up in the Schuler’s faces, and nearly no chance of producing the results they are hoping for. This video explains it very well:
As you can see, the family of Guy Bastardi, Michael Bastardi, and Daniel Longo are getting more and more vocal. I’d wager a bet that these are people you do not want to get riled up. My advice to Diane Schuler’s family right about now would be to back off. But they won’t. They’re hell bent on proving Diane was the second coming of Mother Teresa. I think there in for a major disappointment, especially when those hair follicle tests come back. I almost pity Daniel Schuler when the reality hits him in the face – It won’t be a pretty sight.
The pictures, from top to bottom:
1. Diane Schuler
2. The remains of the Diane Schuler’s minivan
3. The minivan from another angle
4. The Hance family. The three girls are, L to R, Kate, Alyson, and Emma
5. Daniel and Diane Schuler, with Erin and Bryan. Bryan has fully recovered from his injuries.
6. Daniel Longo
7. Michael Bastardi
8. Guy Bastardi
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179 Comments »
I really don’t believe that anyone who had a stroke would have done what she did for any major length of time and or distance. People don’t have strokes the way they drink – a stroke is a scary thing that happens so infrequently that very few people build up a tolerance, while alcohol people build up a tolerance and think that their tolerance will let them handle anything while they are drinking or some feel they just do not need to wait as long as the other wussies.
I can belive the accident if she had a stroke, BUT not a head on driving the wrong direction.
The argument that she did not have diseases common to alcoholics is a non argument-she could easily be a drinker who had not reached the stage where the liver has severe damage. I had a friend and co-worker who we all could see was unhappy, acting oddly but she functioned reasonably well and no one suspected -including her husband who lived with her and her in-laws who seen her every day and lived a block away-was drinking excessively until her step daughter was packing for a vacation and found multiple bottles hidden away in suitcases, storage rooms, etc. She had been drinking heavily for years and didn’t reach the DUI stage until much later, and her family and friends and co-workers did not suspect. The husband may not have seen her drink but it sure doesn’t mean she didn’t. Maybe he is arguing because the insurance won’t pay off if she was drinking and driving, or as a defense in a lawsuit. The painful fact is again all of the innocent people who died because of her selfishness and arrogance. Even IF if was a medical condition she was aware enough to call her brother and tell him she was having problems seeing-tunnel vision and she still did not pull over and stop and for that she doesn’t deserve any defense from anyone
This is not just a reply to what you have posted but to allpostings on this matter. I always try to see things from every point of view to understand what motivates people. I am physically ill by the thought of what this woman did to those innocent children. However, maybe what her husband is doing is just what he has to do in order to survive through this tragedy. Maybe he cannot accept that he did not know what kind of danger he put his children in when he put them in the van that day. Maybe he blames himself and just cannot psychologically handle the guilt. Maybe the only way he can get through this is to not believe it. Maybe he needs to exhaust every possibility that something/someone else was responsible for this tragedy no matter how ridiculous the theory. maybe he is so traumatized that he can’t see beyond his own pain – he cannot even consider the pain of the other families involved because his is too great and all encompassing. Maybe someone put the idea of hiring the attorney into his head and the whole thing took on a life of its own after the lawyer gave him some ray of hope that things were’nt as they seemed. I think it is important not to judge him too harshly yet.
I am curious about this story and the Law and Order episode that seems to be about it because in that episode they actually did make the accident the result of someone else intoxicating her without her knowledge. I wonder why they put that spin on it?
Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that people act in strange when when faced with tragedy and maybe this man deserves at least a little slack.
Yea sorry I don’t care how much of a wreck the husband might be, he doesn’t get to drag everybody else and their pain through the mud with his lies so he can “survive” what happened. He needs to step up. He’s hurting others with his delusions.
Oh look. A Schuler is doing something that hurts others to make their lives easier. That’s new and different.
I agree with Harley. It seems Mr. Schuler is putting his own damned self before so many others who deserve the truth. If Diane had a drug, alcohol and/or depression problem, her husband is partially at fault for letting it go that far. No wife has that much of a problem without her spouse knowing.
Or maybe he was just too self-absorbed all along to notice.
Either way, he’s not innocent and though I’m sure he’s going through a lot, he isn’t helping anyone but himself by lying and covering up the truth. My sympathy is not for him in this case.
I see what you’re getting at shannon, and I admire your compassion, but I think it’s wasted on Daniel and the rest of the Schulers (except little Bryan, of course). When he gave that press conference where he said Diane never drank, he had never seen Diane drunk, and Diane wasn’t an alcoholic, he absolutely knew he was lying. In his first statement to the NY State Police, he said pretty much the opposite, and so did his sister-in-law.
No, I’m quite convinced that hiring that shyster Babara and the lies were all part of a plan to affect the outcome the lawsuits the Schulers knew were coming.
I’d feel some compassion for him, if he’d start telling the truth.
But not much.
Does anyone know how the little boy’s head injuries are? Is he critical or do they think that he will recover? The death of my daughter and nieces along with the injuries of my son would be enough for me to stop proclaiming her praises. The husband is just trying not to get sued from the other family.
Bryan is out of the hospital and seems to have recovered completely – physically. God only knows what his psyche is like now.
Never mix drugs unless your doctor prescribes them. Alcohol doesn’t mix with anything. Pot doesn’t mix with anything. NEITHER MIX WITH DRIVING. Even if you’re all alone at 3 AM and you have 2 blocks to drive home, you should never drive under the influence. Synergism is a killer.
This was pure selfishness. She was sober before she got drunk and stoned. She had presence of mind before she took swig 1. Those poor terrified children didn’t deserve to be victims of her disease.
There is too much wrong here to deal with.
I’d say the husband should go to an ALANON meeting since he’s so deep in de nile he’s in de mud but he probably doesn’t think he has a problem either.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have seriously had it with these motherfuckers who think they can behave this way.
There are very few things in this world that I can say that I truly HATE. People who harm children and animals are at the very top of that list, along with drunk drivers. There is a rage that comes over me when I read about these pieces of shit who get behind the wheel shit-faced out of their mind.
It’s enough to make me lose all faith in humanity, which by the way I am very close to anyways, become a total misanthropist, and go out and shoot someone in the face at close range.
This just makes me sick!!!
I watched her husband’s press conference. He believed what he was saying but, it made no sense. Kind of hard to explain away the vodka bottle, the Blood Alcohol level, and the 6 grams of RAW ALCOHOL in the stomach as a tooth ache. Unless, she drank the alcohol to get rid of the pain from the tooth ache.
Happy to see the victim families pulling together.
I drove drunk when I was a practicing alcoholic. I did it alone, most of the time, coming back from the bars, trying very hard not to hit parked cars. Once I drove on a combination of booze and coke. I never hit anything, never got injured, and never got caught.
I do not deserve to have gotten away with it. I’ve been sober eight years, and I still don’t deserve to have gotten away with it. At least I never hurt anyone.
I think the husband is honestly just in serious, serious denial. he cannot accept that his wife purposely chose actions that led to the death of his child and other innocent people.
I wouldn’t send him or any others from the family to hell, the day they wake up and realize what really happened, will be hell enough for them.
Part of the reason you got away with it was atitude…….
There are 2 types of drunks…. the ones that realize that they are not right and become extra cautious and the ones that think they are more powerful than the alcohol in their system.
While driving drunk is wrong, the wrong attitude only makes it worst.
True, Fred, very true. I don’t like to drive drunk because I’m one of those drinkers who gets pulled over because I’m doing 40 mph in the slow lane, paranoid as hell.
If you’re going to go somewhere drunk, walk for Gods sake. You might get mugged or raped but no one else will die. And if you get picked up for public drunkenness, it’s 6 or 8 hours in the pokey and then they kick you out again.
What does it matter if she were an alcoholic or not? She was a mother. She was driving. She drank and smoked pot and then refused to pull over. What she did was irresponsible, selfish, and criminal. The family should be grieving over those little girls and reaching out to the other families. They should not be making excuses for someone who made a fatal decision. Good people change, they make mistakes, they loose their way. To pretend it doesn’t happen only hurts those who remain.
exactly!!! and the thing that gets me too is this…. whether shes an alkie or not, she still killed people. if she WASNT an alkie, IMO it just worse… that means she didnt NEED a drink, but got hammered anyway.
Diane is not a alcoholic!!!
She just had some rum cake for breakfast… She just ran out of flour, that’s all.
EXACTLY!!!! Now we can avoid all that nasty alcoholism talk. ROFL
@VCBecky,
as a person with experience, i can tell you many drugs mix very nicely, alcohol and cocaine mix perfectly, pot and alcohol do too, but only if you first smoke and then drink.
i can also confirm that pot can help you sleep, i have quit smoking pot since Monday and am suffering from insomnia as a result (cold turkey from 200 euro a week to nothing).
don’t get me wrong here though, it’s not something i’m proud of, i’ve never should have let it get this far. this DOES prove however that pot is hardly addictive, i need no help with quitting and the loss of sleep isn’t all that severe.
had a bit of a hard time voting yes, but think she does deserve hell.
DualDenz, I am a daily pot smoker. I am a card carrying Californian. I won’t go into my medical problems (yes, I do have them!) but trust me, I am fully aware of the benefits and the limitations of marijuana. I spend 12 hours a day in front of a computer, and I would be unable to work without it. Several people would lose their livelihood if I had to stop working for pain, or for surgery – I own the business and there is no replacement for me. I am neither proud or ashamed of it, it’s simply a fact of my life. I’m not saying it’s purely medical, of course I enjoy it when I’m not in pain. I’d be a hypocrite to say otherwise!
I’ve seen firsthand the effects synergism has on people. Some people are not affected by it at all, some are. All drugs have different effects on different bodies, and when they are mixed, it’s unpredictable. Some people can do coke once and never have the urge again, while some are instantly addicted. Some people can do several hundred wippits (nitrous oxide) and be just fine, while others have a brain aneurysm their first try. By my experience, mixing intoxicants is stupid. Meaning no offense, of course. ;)
Sorry about the somewhat off topic post. What it all boils down to is that she knew she was going to become intoxicated before she took the first puff, or the first sip. There really is a time and a place for practically everything. Usually, behind the wheel of a car is a bad location for anything but driving even if you do not have a car full of future doctors, scientists, leaders, teachers. Who knows who she really killed with her selfish irresponsibility? Who will ever know what we all lost in that car?
I like to smoke pot occasionally as well as drinking. I do both at home, no driving involved. That is where it should be done if one chooses to do such things. I’m not proud of the fact that I like pot either, but it certainly helps curb insomnia which I have. I have driven drunk, but NEVER with my children in the car and NEVER going the wrong way down a highway or street. I, too have never had an accident, never been pulled over, and never killed anyone. I think if that did happen, I would hope to be among the dead. That is exactly why I do not drink/smoke and drive anymore. EVER. I cried when I saw the pictures of those beautiful children. May they rest in peace.
weed only became a factor in this when diane decided to smoke and drink at the same time. i am a habitual weed smoker, but i don’t drink. weed alone makes you extra cautious, extra paranoid and extra focused (at least for me). once you get drunk and then smoke a blunt, forget it. the spins set in and NO ONE can escape the spins.
Ew. The spins. I’d never had them until about a month ago. I had a happy brownie, I was playing WoW, and my toon was on a windrider. I have a large, panoramic monitor at home that seems to wrap around my head sometimes. WHOOOO boy, I just went right to bed after that. Hehe!
ok, this may come as a bit of a shock, but i see no problem in driving while stoned. i have done that on numerous ocasions (and i’ve seen offical tests clearly showing your driving ability is NOT impaired by being stoned). i feel comfortable that i wont cause accidents while stoned. i wouldn’t drive while drunk though.
I stupidly mixed pot and a bottle of wine one night. Very, very bad idea. I think I puked more than I have at any other time in my life. A horrible, horrible experience.
I only drove once while high, but in my defense, I honestly thought I was sober. I had had a few tokes early in the evening, and several hours later everyone else at the party was asleep, so I decided to drive home because I felt fine. For the first half of the trip, I was fine. But then as I drove through a tunnel, it seemed to take forever. I started questioning myself as to whether or not I was only going ten miles an hour or if my sense of time was way off. I concentrated fiercely the rest of the way.
About ten blocks from my apartment, a police car turned its lights on behind me. I FREAKED. I pulled over, positive I was going to jail for DUI. But the cop drove past me. I went home and vowed I would never ever drive after smoking pot again, no matter how I felt. I never did.
Hah! DualDenz, what makes me dangerous when I drive and smoke is paranoia! However it does remove my more assholish driving tendencies, that’s for sure. I need those tendencies to survive driving in So Cal.!! What was “Screw you, jerkoff! Instead of letting your slow and swervy as in front of me, you get my FINGAR! Fair trade, dickcheese!”, is now “Aw, man, sure. Get in front of me, dude. Happy Monday, man! It’s all good! Doesn’t the deadly smog make the sunset look AWESOME?”
AAAANyway…
Everything we put into our bodies, including food, affects everyone differently. This freakin’ Schuler bitch knew her limits. You can’t be her age and not know, especially if you’ve been able to hide it even if your husband isn’t very observant or honest with himself. I’d almost call it a murder/suicide.
BTW, I haven’t driven intoxicated since my early 20’s. Never drunk, certainly loaded. I think we all have at one time or another, but that doesn’t mean we’re smart for it!
so your children weren’t in the car eh? did you stop to think about other people’s children, whose parents were not driving drunk? before you get on your high horse about not having your children in the car….think about other people.
Erin, you hit the nail on the head with this whole thing. We don’t care what you do to yourself – think about other people! That’s all you really have to do. Destroy yourself in every imaginable way. Go ahead. Just don’t take other people with you.
I wanted to believe that there was something else wrong. I wanted to believe that some kind of medical complication caused her to flip out. I watched this story, and I saw how adamant the husband was, and it touched me. (Although I did think about the possible reasons why he could be pushing so hard, not the least of which was the car insurance liability.)
But then he started pushing way too hard. At some point you have to accept that the evidence is overwhelming. Had it been a small amount of alcohol in the blood, theoretically it is possible that a body could spontaneously produce it (I think). But not the amount she had, not the fresh alcohol in her gut, not the THC.
This was a tragedy, caused entirely by Diane Shuler, and it is made exponentially worse by her family’s denial. Shame on them.
Diane Schuler deserves to be in Hell. No doubt in my mind. When I first read about this tragedy it sounded like she had some kind of medical or psychotic experience that caused her to start driving erratically. But when I found out she was drunk and high, I went from being sad and horrified to disgusted and angry. A mother and father have lost ALL THREE of their children (I can’t imagine it), two other families have lost a son/brother/father/friend. And a man has lost a wife, a daughter and now it seems his mind.
I for one have to say that while I find Daniel Schuler’s desperation in acquitting his wife to be irritating, I find myself feeling a certain degree of sympathy for him. Don’t get me wrong, I think he had to have known his wife had a bad drinking habit (although I suppose it’s possible he didn’t, however unlikely) and chose to look the other way or pretend it wasn’t as bad as it really was. But I can empathize with his inability to accept that his wife is responsible for the deaths of seven innocent people – four of them children – one of them his own. It’s too humongous a horror with which to come to terms.
Michael Gangon’s and Martin Heidgen’s (and other drunk driving fucks who kill people then walk away from the accident physically unscathed) friends’ and family’s support of them is inexcusable. But those friends and family didn’t lose them (and a child) in the wreck. Their precious angel is alive and well, albeit sitting in jail, and their lack of empathy for the families of the people splattered on the road is shocking. Daniel lost his wife and daughter and three nieces in the wreck that his wife caused. Daniel cannot wrap his head around that and I doubt I could either.
But the sympathy I feel for him is unmatched by the heartache I feel for the Hances, Bastardis and Longos. It’s beyond my ability to comprehend… and I hope I never do comprehend it.
She is as guilty as it gets. I don’t care what nonsensical excuse anyone can pull out of their ass.. She was Drunk, High and cared nothing for anyone else! Not her neices, other drivers and most shamefully her very own children. She deserves hell.
When I used to drink and drive, I would find myself doing 40 mph in the slow lane of the freeway. If I was high, it was worse, and I would freak out going 25 mph down a city street. Better not to be doing it. It still freaks me out to be a drunk passenger in a car doing the speed limit. I scream “Slow down!” incessantly.
Attitude – I stated that the difference between this POS and another contributer is attitude. This bitch thought that she was more powerful than alcohol & other drugs…. the tunnel vision should have given her a hint…
Also if the tunnel vision did not scare her enough as to stop, then, to me it’s obvious that this woman was an alcoholic. Sure she can still “function”, I will NOT dispute that, but most people with problems do not exhibit them 24/7.
Like addiction to the net……… yes I am less productive, but I still function enough as to get a paycheck, feed my fat ass, bathe, etc…
Great coverage of this story Max! I understand how you could obsess over getting the facts on this case, and I feel no sympathy for Daniel Schuler…look at his mug in the video–just the still shot tells his story. He is a pissed-off, angry man and has nobody to lash out at so he has to hire that pathetic mouthpiece, as you indicated, to put his “truth” in front of us. It is almost as if he is incapable of emotion, he is so filled with anger and hate. Unfortunately, since the facts of the case are the facts of the case, Schuler will waste his money with Domidick Barbasshole trying to defend what is left of his dignity against the upcoming lawsuits…
Something I wrote in my profile on PYSIH may be appropriate to state here: Accountability and responsibility are what makes human existence stable; absent of this we become the society we are today. This is reflected in the minute-by-minute abuses of the political and legal systems in our world today, and here, if nowhere else, we get an opportunity to discuss these failures and the people that are the poster children for society run amuck.
If Diane Schuler isn’t in Hell then it’s just because they are overbooked and she is at the gate waiting for her space to become available.
It does not matter if she was an alcoholic or not. She drove drunk and killed 7 people. Many drunk drivers are not alcoholics. Daniel Schuler is no better than Michael Gagnon’s family. I bet Daniel is the enabler of Diane’s drinking. Making excuses for things like Diane Schuler did is like people who make excuses for Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold.
You SHOULD NEVER MIX anything with alcohol. It can cause adverse reactions.
They are exhuming Diane Schuler’s body because Daniel Schuler does not believe his wife was drunk despite autopsy report.
http://cbs11tv.com/national/wrong.way.crash.2.1158841.html
After reading that, I have just the faintest bit of doubt again. If the family is THAT adamant, maybe there is something. After all, mistakes can be made.
If the autopsy didn’t show anything about several legitimate disorders she had, is there any possibility that they examined the wrong body? I don’t know how autopsy procedures are, but if doctors can operate on the wrong patient, it seems reasonable, if far out, that an autopsy could be screwed up. (I just googled “autopsy mistakes, and it seems like it COULD happen.)
Anyway – the family is paying for it, so I have no issue with the body being exhumed and re-autopsied. But if there are discrepancies, it’s gonna be a giant cluster-fuck.
Anyway, unless and until something changes, I will assume that Diane Shuler was guilty.
Maz, let me tell you something. I spent weeks looking into this story. I read just about every article I could find. The people who are defending Diane are out of their minds. Every piece of evidence I could locate, every quote from every doctor, witness, and Law Enforcement official, every description of the symptoms Diane was showing before the crash, every statement by people outside of the family who knew Diane, point to her being a closet drinker who was wasted out of her mind at the moment she smashed into the Bastardi’s SUV. One thing I forgot to put in the story was that a smashed Absolute bottle was found at the crash scene – another piece of evidence the Schuler family chooses to forget about.
These people are scum – they have chosen to support Diane over her brother Warren Hance and his wife, who lost all three of their children, and do it in as public a forum as possible. What kind of people act that way? They could have made quiet inquiries through a third party, out of respect for the victim’s families, and accomplished just as much as they have now. No, if they’re right about Diane I’ll dance in my tighty whitey’s on Main Street at high noon and post a video of it on the front page of this website.
Strangely, I am somehow hoping now that there was a mistake in the autopsy. *grin*
Seriously though, there is just the most minuscule chance, and I still have this nagging feeling that it has more to car insurance liability than in clearing the name of a virtuous woman.
Whatever, I am not holding my breath.
errr – more to DO with car insurance liability…. I got distracted by the thought of Max dancing….
I’ve had second thoughts about that – for everyone else’s sake. It wouldn’t be a pretty site.
Max,
After putting it like that, a little bit of my sympathy for Daniel Schuler has been shaved off. I still feel for the guy, what he is being forced to come to terms with is unfathomable. But you’re right. Why they feel the need to play this out in front of TV cameras is a tad bewildering.
*waving dollar bills* Just make sure I’m in the front row! I would give my life savings to see that! lol jk :)
As a friend, I have to tell you, the word ‘disappointed’ doesn’t begin to describe what you’ll be feeling afterwards.
Maybe I’ll stick with being the Designated drive for the Strip Club field trips that my shipmates demand to take each month, though. :)
Excuse me, Designated Driver. Been laid up with a sinus infection and some really good drugs all week
Here is one of those “mom’s blog” making excuses for Diane Schuler. Sick.
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/08/diane_schuler_was_not_a_bad_mom_alcoholism.php
Ha! you’ll never hear me saying mixing drugs is smart, on the contrary, but some mix quite well. i wasn’t trying to say it’s a good idea to mix drugs, it’s never a good idea to do drugs in general, let alone mix them.
absolutely no offense taken!
This is so, so sad. I understand that the family have difficulties accepting what that woman had done but their complete denial is ridiculous and an insult to the victims.
heads up, the Longo’s and Bastardi’s are from Yonkers, NY, not Long Island.
Diane Schuler did something VERY wrong. I live in Yonkers, and this case is on the news EVERY SINGLE DAY. what gets me about daniel schuler the most is the fact that hes got a 5 year old son who is STILL in the hospital because of his dum ass selfish wife,k but where’s daniel? ohh, hes on larry king or giving press conferences. worry about your kid, man! daniel schuler and his sister and law are milking the media for everything they can get and its disgusting. first of all, the sister in law has nothing to do with anything, i just think she is a fame hungry whore. daniel is just in denial, big time. he needs to wake up and realize, his wife was a dumass. many married people wake up one morning to this realization… it just normally isn’t preceded by your spouse taking out 7 innocent people, most of them children.
the longo, bastardis and lil bryan are in my prayers. daniel schuler- wake up, be a parent and try to move on. all this media attention is just making you look like an ignorant moron.
Thanks for that heads up LilMissSunshine – I’ll fix the story right away. But I thought Bryan had been released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago? Was he re-admitted?
You’re absolutely right about Danial and his sister-in-law. They are so wrapped up in their own agenda that they either aren’t aware or don’t care about the pain they are causing the Bastardis, Longos and Hances. And what’s up with that son of a bitch Dominic Barbara? Is he not a huge scumbag. Anbesol? Seriously? An-be-fucking-sol!!!? Diane Schuler was raising her glucose level with a bottle of Vodka? Someone should seriously hit that guy in the head with a lead pipe until his brain is damaged.
Daniel Schuler should be more worried about his surviving son, not denying that his wife is a drunk driver. Parents put their children above themselves. They are scum.
Dominic Barbara from the Howard Stern show ! That is a little funny. If you ever heard this idiot on his show.
Depending on what kind of testing you are using, Anbesol can indeed show up on an alchohol test. So can using hand-sanitiser. Or Windex. There are plenty of people involved in lawsuits right now who have lost their jobs because of it. You can look it up- it does not test BAC like the others, it identifies some kind of marker, and can even detect one drink you had from 3-7 days prior. But they didn’t kill 7 people.
The BAC test shows the level of alchol in the blood AT THE TIME. Since they state her current level, it’s obvious they used that test- so they really can’t claim the Anbesol defense. Also, she’d have to have swigged about 60 of those little bottles to have that volume of unprocessed alcohol in her stomach.
What I don’t get, is why does it matter if she wasn’t an alcoholic? She was a drunk driver. She killed 7 people. What I would like answered is why she had a large bottle of vodka in the driving area of her car, vodka she and and her husband took on a camping trip, if she wasn’t known to drink?
I think what the family means is that when she did drink, she was pleasant enough. They probably never had the joy of being in a car she’d driven afterwards. You don’t take vodka on a camping trip if you don’t drink. My guess is that Hubby drinks as well. A lot. And he’s probably pleasant when he drinks, too. He doesn’t like hearing that his wife was an alchoholic because it means he’s one too. If half my family had been wiped out by someone drinking, first thing I’d do is empty the liquor cabinet. But I’ll bet Hubby’s is still full.
I know people like that- my ex-in-laws. Every family gathering started off at 2pm with ‘just a little drinky-poo’. Which went on until about 2am, or until everyone passed out. But they were friendly drunks. They laughed a lot, were funny- when I had a drink with them. When I didn’t, they didn’t seem so pleasant. For example, some of the things they did while drunk-
FIL pissed his own pants in a restaruant parking lot while arguing that he was sober enough to drive after I hid his keys.
MIL fell on New Year’s Eve and broke her hip- FIL put a blanket on her and left her on the floor all night because they didn’t want the ambulance to see them drunk.
MIL took a header down the porch steps one time, on another, she almost took a header while holding my 6 week old son.
They, too, take along a ‘coctail kit’ everywhere they go, just in case no liquor stores are open. Even the 101 year old Nana drinks like a fish.
Which is why the ex is now an ex. He lost a kidney 2 years ago- but it wasn’t from drinking or the massive amounts of OTC painkillers he slugged back to deal with the hangovers, wink, wink.
Not every alcoholic has verifiable medical problems, or Nana wuold not be 101.
Hubby should not be allowed custody of the surviving child until he gets help for his drinking. I’m glad the mother died. Too often, the relaxing effects of alcohol enable a drunk driver to relax and end up being the sole survivor.
Hell? Absolutely.
Oh, I forgot to say- every single one of them would claim it wasn’t possible for one of them to have been an alcoholic- even if they’d killed 7 people with their drunk driving.
I just watched that video- Is it me, or is it just plain weird that nobody in the family is crying at all? Hubby screws his face up a couple of times, and at one point wipes away a tear that isn’t there. I can’t imagine even being coherent, much less being able to do a news conference without bawling my head off about my dead wife, child and other family children. When I’m in more pain than usual, my fiancee actually tears up- with real tears. And I’m not even dead.
Something is just weird about this whole thing. I notice nobody claimed she didn’t smoke pot ever.
c
This woman was a ticking time bomb and people are amazed that went she exploded she killed herself and others around her? Please, forget her husbands denial of the depth of her dysfunction-remember for some people as long as everything still looked all right it was all right. He has a lot of clean up to do because he failed his wife, family and the other people she killed because he chose to keep a blind eye to what was happening. Ignorance is not an excuse. Time and time again I have heard people time me that they let their children go to the abusive family member because “they said they would change” or ” I thought that everything looked okay then it was okay” of course then something happens to the child and I get the call. I am sick of people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions and blame it on alcohol or drugs. By the way, YOU are responsible drink, high or sober for your actions. I foresee years and years of therapy for the surviving child, hope they get a good therapist for him. Condolences to the real victims of this tragedy, Daniel Schuler and that fucking lawyer Dominic Barbara can go straight to the pit.
“Kim says:
I like to smoke pot occasionally as well as drinking. I do both at home, no driving involved. That is where it should be done if one chooses to do such things. I’m not proud of the fact that I like pot either, but it certainly helps curb insomnia which I have. I have driven drunk, but NEVER with my children in the car and NEVER going the wrong way down a highway or street. I, too have never had an accident, never been pulled over, and never killed anyone. I think if that did happen, I would hope to be among the dead. That is exactly why I do not drink/smoke and drive anymore. EVER. I cried when I saw the pictures of those beautiful children. May they rest in peace.”
You took EVERYTHING I had to say!! LOL. This my exact perspective, line by line!! I haven’t driven anywhere in an altered state since my early 20’s, and since I’ve had children, I’d NEVER do it again… But if by some miniscule chance I did, and I had someone BEGGING me to pull over so they could come continue the drive SAFELY, what kind of sack of sh!t am I to throw the phone out of the window instead of stopping? Better yet, does anyone else know their friggin’ limits?? Who gets that drunk (other than an alcoholic)? Getting piss-yourself-blackout-drunk is not EVEN FUN…. It’s MUCH more enjoyable to fall on the line somewhere between buzzed and tipsy and leave it at that!!!
As for Diane Schuler… Wow. I mean… wow. The husband *may* actually believe his version of the story, but HIGHLY unlikely. I think it’s more possible that he’s just trying to salvage her image. Shoot, the medical examiner must really have it in to frame a virtuous woman if he/she is willing to face prosecution for falsifying official records… Because given the amount of scrunity this case got, I doubt they tried to do anything less than a flawless analysis.
When I think about the terror those poor children and innocent men probably felt in their last moments, I must admit I hope Diane is in AT LEAST the seventh circle of hell….
ABeautifulLife-> I believe that she will be taking up residence in the second circle of hell. She drank to the point of oblivion, which is clearly gluttony.
There are actually Nine circles of Hell, the first being Limbo, neither here nor there.
1. Lust-> I assume rapists would wind up either here or in the sixth circle
2. Gluttony-> Max, you’d better watch out…. My old priest said that fat bastards go here (lol)
3. Greed-> This is where the IRS will be
4. Wrath-> This is where I would wind up at some point ;)
5. Heresy-> Ummmmm Dunno
6. Violence-> 90% of the morons featured here would wind up in the sixth circle
7. Fraud-> Identity thieves and Martha Stewart
8. Treason-> Every draft dodger and individual who went AWOL
And that’s it :) So yeah, either the second or the sixth for this dumb broad
So yeah, Limbo doesn’t really count, as it is in neither Heaven nor Hell
@ NavyCop
Thanks dude. Guess I’ll see you somewhere in the fourth circle then, because I get pretty pissed with the mothersuckers I read about on this site. But then again, I sometimes have thoughts of strangling some of them with a wire clothes hanger… Dang, does that make me sixth circle-bound then?
**pondering**
After seeing your picture and thinking you are at least quite cute (need a full body shot here), yeah circle 1 – lust for me ;-) !
Wrath for sure as well, topped off with a hint of gluttony, seasoned with some violence and a touch of greed (I am a bit too much of a pack rat).
Yes we are all guilty of some of the deadly sins, but many of these deadly sins based upon normal life activities done to an extreme.
1. Gluttony – we all have to eat…
2. Greed – we all want for ourselves, but the manner in which we attain and maintain is what sets the line……..
3. Wrath – if the stories here don’t stir up some of that in a person, then they are evil fucks
4. Violence – action taken too far, esp coupled with wrath
5. Fraud – when BullShitting becomes a way of life, when little to nothing can be done honestly.
Treason is inexcusable and heresy is usually defined by authority with an agenda as a means to force conformance, Al Gore and global warming being an example…
Good lord, Fred! Only quite cute!?
I only saw your face – need more……. (OK want more) body (skin preferred)…..
Fred, Fred, Fred. I am speechless :)
This makes me want to get a large tattoo in some prominent place on my body that says “DIRECT TO CIRCLE 6″. Hehe.
Well, she had a lump on her leg… That explains it.
That lawyer is ridiculous. I always have a real problem with people trying to deny something so obvious. Yes, being a diabetic could cause the same symptoms of intoxication (if she became hyper/hypoglycemic), however the large amounts of FUCKING ALCOHOL in her system pretty much negate that theory. Also, her lab values would have been funky in the autopsy if this were due to diabetes. I can not understand the level of denial these people are in. I must say, it does seem like something is off, but I really don’t believe that these autospy findings are that screwed up. The dad does not seem genuine, but I have no idea how I would act if my world fell apart like this. All of this seems crazy to me.
09/04/09 – STORY UPDATED: New Video added about Daniel Schuler’s appearance on Larry King, and the appearance of The Longos and the Bastardis on the Today Show in order to respond to Schuler.
….this is difficult for me (but not 1/1000 as dificult as what the families go through) because 4 years ago –to the day–i got pulled over for dui being a .21…every day i think how lucky it is that i was by myself and didn’t hurt/kill/injure anyone/anything…i have not driven since although i can legally…i still feel like its early in my recovery, and of course when i was caught wasn’t the first time i did it…i am so so sorry for endangering people’s lives…words cannot describe it…
You chose to drink then drive. Yes, it was dumb and dangerous. Yes, if you had hurt or killed someone, you would have had their blood on your hands forever. Yes, it probably was just sheer luck that the first time this bad choice you made came to the attention of law enforcement was before you got in a wreck and not after.
But there’s something you need to remember- you are genuinely sorry for making that mistake and you have learned a very important lesson from it. You know you will never, ever make that mistake again. Because you admitted to yourself it was something that should never be repeated, there is a possibility that you and/or someone else is still alive today due to your honest self-admission.
You deserve respect for that, from others but most importantly from yourself. Perhaps one day telling your story to someone else will prevent them from making the same dumb, dangerous mistake you did and then you will have paid what you owed and you’ll be square with the house again.
Please accept this virtual, electronic back-pat from doof and remember from now on, keep the dirty side down and the shiny side up.
Tell you what, if I were responsible for the deaths of my kids and/or nieces and nephews, my family would be DANCING on my grave! I cannot fathom how this bitch’s select family members are trying to make her out to be a good mother, let alone a good person. Burn in hell Diane Schuler. I hope the Devil has a nice big pineapple ready for insertion.
Please don’t take this the wrong way. My views on this woman is that she was a secret alcoholic and this accident was really no one’s fault but the woman driving. There are just a few questions I have.
One… Is it at ALL possible that the ME got blood tests mixed up? 8 bodies from a horrific crash, is there ANY chance that the blood tested was from one of the three men rather then the woman herself? Seems to me the odds are extremely unlikely but is that a reason for the second autopsy?
Two.. I know that diabetics can have a side effect that causes their breath to smell like they have been drinking. (I know this because the night before my mother died she went too the hospital and they dismissed her for that reason. They thought she was drunk, when it was this side effect instead. She died during the night from some kind of diabetic crisis. Can anyone possibly clear that up for me?) Is it possible that is what caused her higher blood alcohol level?
I’m not trying to dismiss what the woman did. I want to make sense of it. The woman should have stopped on the road and waited for her brother no matter the cause.
I can’t put much into the fact the woman had the vodka bottle in her van. I had a half a bottle of some kind of wine in my car for a year. My sister in law gave it too us at one point to use a sauce and I forgot about it. Of course, it was in the trunk of my car… And never touched until I tossed it finally. I don’t drink, I’m always the designated driver. I rather get the money drunks give me to take them home, plus the bars give free sodas to the designated drivers, so all’s good.
I’m sorry to hear that your mother was treated so badly by people who are supposed to know better Gabby. There’s no excuse for that.
You make a lot of good points in your comment. There’s nothing wrong with being a devil’s advocate, and there’s nothing wrong with the Schuler Family wanting to verify the results of the ME’s autopsy. My beef with them is the WAY they did it. Taking it to the most public of forums, the news media, hiring the worst possible lawyer, Dominic Barbara, and making the most outrageous and illogical excuses for Diane Schuler, without any regard for feelings of the families of the victims, shows them to be about as low class a group of people as I’ve heard about in a very long time. It’s really hard to believe people can act this way in public.
Thank you.
Yes, I agree, the family should have a little more tact. I stand firmly by what I said. No matter what the true cause, espically if the woman had a stroke or diabetic crisis, she should have stopped and waited. That is the main reason I belive she was drunk. She didn’t want to get caught.
Nothing makes me more angry then drunk driving. Reciently in town, a young girl was killed when her drunk friend rolled the car. The driver got nothing, not a ticket, no jail… NOTHING. Why? Because ’she feels bad enough.’ I would like to make her feel worse. She should never be allowed to forget what her stupidty cost the other girl. The moment she forgets is the moment history repeats itself.
I would rather see pot leaglized, and everyone in jail for pot offences released, then MUCH tougher jail sentances for DUI offenders. I’m all for first time offenders getting 5 or 10 year sentances, what ever the term for attempted murder may be. Maybe people will think twice about drinking and driving.
This is not some things you can play ignorance over. Anyone who reads the paper, watches TV, listens to the radio, or looks at road signs KNOWS that drinking and driving is not only a crime, but can be deadly. I don’t know about your’s but our DMV has posters everywhere about the dangers of DUIs. You HAVE to be able to read to drive… Plus your there forever you can’t help but read them. Why does the courts allow such light sentances to these people, espically the repeat offenders?
“They thought she was drunk, when it was this side effect instead.”
Ketoacidosis? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_ketoacidosis
Hmmm…
On my mom’s side of the family, I have an older sister who is going through alcoholic-related (as in, INDUCED) Dementia, and before that, basically literally “bottomed out” three times (the last time she lost ALL control of her functions, shat the bed while staying at our mom’s house…nice), before she finally quit drinking. She’s basically committed this suicide for the past twenty years, and I have no actual idea how it started (there’s the story how her husband abused her, but come on, he didn’t put the bottle to her lips), and another sister is a recovering alcoholic, who also is a recovering spousal abuse victim, but surprisingly, neither one of them ever caused a collision.
I also had, on my dad’s side, a distant cousin whom I’ve never met, but she was killed in a drunk driving INCIDENT (it’s never an accident when there’s booze involved) on her way home from work, and the icing on the cake was the guy who hit her friend’s car was an illegal alien who somehow managed to run out of HIS car and elude police for three hours. They caught him, but I don’t know if they just deported him or what.
I don’t know why I’m telling you all this, but alcohol is one hell of a liquid.
Yeah, I live like 5 minutes from here this happend. shes sick and twisted.
And De Nile is not just a river in Egypt anymore!
Why none knew her t work sy anything about er character? if se was a abusive with coworkers? did she like to scream at people?
Why none knew her at work? no coworkers say anything !!! if she liked to scream at people? she was an abusive boss to others?
Diabetic ketoacidosis can certianly make a person appear and even smell intoxicated- but I do not believe it can affect a person’s BAC. Also, her blood glucose readings would have indicaed if this were the case.
how can you drive the wrong way, and not be drunk… i’d totally notice signs not facing the right way… wow… just wow… poor babies.
burn bitch.
From what I understand, from reading information released in the media, she had undigested alcohol in her stomach. I think it was something like an equivalent of 10 shots of liquor.
I am absolutely not saying that she didnt have some medical problem. but there isnt any medical diagnosis that I know of that can explain undigested alcohol in ones stomach- aside from actually consuming the alcohol.
What I know about Diabetic ketoacidosis is little, but I do understand that symptoms come on rather quickly. They usually evolve over a 24 hour period and include severe abdominal pain and severe thirst. I have a friend who is a nurse in a dialysis clinic and when I called her to ask her about this she said the smell is more often than not fruity as opposed to alcohol-y. If Diane Schuler had been having an attack of this wouldn’t someone have noticed her discomfort? Shouldn’t someone have questioned her ability to drive?
I am not disagreeing that blood samples may have been mixed up and results may have been attributed to the wrong person; but I do think that the bottle of alcohol found in her car tells a story; as does the phone call to her brother and her cell phone being left behind.
I do think though that sometimes when an ME comes up with a result that isn’t kosher with a family its automatically deemed corrupted and I think sometimes families need to understand that just because something is revealed that they don’t like; doesn’t make it wrong.
I cant say that I have ever driven under the influence of anything; so I don’t know how easy it is to get confused and go the wrong way on the expressway. But it would seem that no matter how messed up you are; when you see a car coming at you, you would know something is wrong. It almost seems to me like that in and of itself would be a sobering experience.
Thanks for the link, dooflotchie.
I don’t think that the ME got blood samples mixed, or that it was a health issue. I was just asking if that was a possible reason for the second autopsy.
Everytime I hear about this woman’s family and their objections, I think they should have gotten Dr. G in there. The autopsy would have been done, finalized and on her TV show next week.
I am having such a hard time accepting the fact that a woman with a reputation for being a good mother and well-liked person would get into a car with five kids, drive for a while, stop for lunch and THEN get drunk and high and continue driving. Logically, this seems to be the case. But now I am compelled to wonder if Diane didn’t have some kind of mental breakdown after all that caused her to spontaneously go on a alcohol and pot binge. I think everyone agrees she was drunk and high. But I can’t help but wonder if she was consciously getting drunk and high or if she did have some kind of psychotic episode beforehand. I just can’t wrap my head around it. If she was alone in the car, I could fathom it. But she had FIVE KIDS in the car, two of whom were her own. Why would someone who wasn’t drunk when they started driving GET drunk while they were driving? I just can’t make any sense of it. Was she that apathetic and reckless? Or was she nuts?
So, maybe she DID have some kind of medical issue that caused her to totally lose her shit. Normal people (even people with alcohol problems) do not slam shots and smoke pot with THEIR FREAKING KIDS (and other people’s kids) in the car. She might have had a mild stroke or something and then her judgement was all askew. I don’t know but I just can’t see any mother getting black-out hammered with the kids right behind her, EVEN IF SHE WAS A CLOSET ALCOHOLIC. I have my battles with alcohol and have even had 2 dui’s (not with BAC as high as hers, and I didn’t hit anyone or anything and no one was in my car but me, BUT I COULD HAVE hurt someone and I learned my lesson) BUT I think there is something else here and my heart goes out to all families involved in the tragic situation. super sad.
Now you know all the conservative, bible-banging, bullshit propoganda-loving, ignorant retards are going to use this to say that pot is bad, conveniently ignoring the fact that this moron was plastered off her stupid ass. Just wait.
Oh shut the fuck up – as a matter of fact, I’m all for legalizing weed, and many of the commenters on this site like to indulge in a little herb. I can’t stand the fact that people’s lives are being ruined just because they like to smoke dope, while the guy next door can drink himself to death, turns into an angry jerk, fights everybody, get arrested – and do it all over again tomorrow night.
So don’t go assuming things before you read a few comments – it just makes you look stupid.
Max, honey, this guy actually made a little sense. Let me translate: “Now you know all the conservative, bible-banging, bullshit propoganda-loving, ignorant retards are going to use this to say that pot is bad, conveniently ignoring the fact that this moron was plastered off her stupid ass. Just wait.”
Translation: “Conservatives and Imbeciles are going to use this particular case to further their anit-marijuana agenda, while they turn a blind eye to the simple fact that Ms Schuler was also extremely drunk. Just wait and see.”
Oh yeah – Thanks NavyCop
I withdraw my previous comment, which turned out to be a perfect example of what I was lecturing fgdfgfg for doing. In other words, I ended up being the asshole here.
It’s okay Max, we love you any way and wouldn’t want anyone else to be our supreme leader. *bows in humble admiration*
How did you possibly misconstrue the post? It was obvious to me, on first read, that he was pro-marijuana and commenting on this incident being used to further the anti-pot agenda.
i just saw the name BO above ur name and it aint this BO from austin tx.m only comments on the bottom.
That lawyer is such a lieing whiney piece of shit, can we send him to hell too?
Please can we?? Only I have a suspicion that there is a photo by the entrance to hell with this attorney’s face on it with a not allowed in sticker across it-This guy would drive Satan and all his minions over the edge with his stupid inane commentary and excuses!
What a family of idiots!
I really, really want to see Max the Cat dance around on Main Street…:D
And then you will really, really, REALLY want to gouge your eyes out of your head with a ball point pen. (No offense, Max)
I was thinking about what the hell was going through Diane Schuler’s head when she plowed into the Bastardis’ car going the wrong way. I have a theory that to me makes perfect sense. Please note that this is not a defense of Diane Schuler (and most certainly not of her husband or his scumbag lawyer). This is only me still trying to make sense of this.
Reportedly, Diane had an abscess tooth. Anyone who has ever had one knows it can go from mildly irritating to agonizingly painful very quickly. After loading up the car she drove to McDonald’s. He tooth was bothering her a bit, but was tolerable at this point. While eating breakfast, she bit down on something which caused her tooth to become painfully inflamed. After breakfast she stopped at a gas station to fill up and hopefully get some pain relievers. When the gas station didn’t have pain relievers, she decided to grin and bear it and just get home as quickly as possible.
She got on the highway, hoping the pain would dissipate. It didn’t. She became more and more desperate to just get home, not even wanting to get off the road to run in and out of a drug store. In her desperation she drove aggressively, tailgating, honking, swearing and trying to get past everyone she perceived to be in her way. Finally at some point, she remembered the bottle of vodka under the seat.
She thought, okay, one sip, swished around in my mouth, should do the trick. When one sip proved ineffective, she took a bigger gulp. Then another. Then another. She probably didn’t think she’d drunk too much (and we all know that two or three big gulps from a bottle can easily equal ten shots, but would not seem like nearly as much). By now she was feeling a bit tipsy, but her tooth was still killing her. She then recalled the joint in the glove compartment. Okay, she thought, one toke will definitely take the edge off.
She had probably had enough experience with pot that she thought she could maintain control. Just the vodka? Maybe. Just the pot? Maybe. Both of them mixed together. No way. Almost immediately, she realized she fucked up. She became disoriented and panicked. Finally she had her first responsible thought of the morning. She pulled over. She called her brother and told him she was having trouble seeing and didn’t know where she was. Justifiably concerned, he told her to stay put and he would come get her.
Oh…shit… My brother is going to come pick me and the kids up and here I am drunk and stoned. Fuck! There’s going to be hell to pay. Now even more panicked, she left her cell phone on the highway (either absent-mindedly or to stop her brother from calling back) and decided to pull herself together and make it home.
She missed the entrance to the parkway, and in her “focus” wound up getting on the offramp in the wrong direction. Amazingly, no one happened to be getting off the parkway at that moment. So determined was she to drive safely and straight that she got in what she thought was the slow lane and remained rigidly in her own lane. Pot can make you focus, but it also makes you zone lots of important details out, like the fact that you are going the wrong way on the highway or the SUV that is currently speeding directly toward you.
I think it may very well be true that she wasn’t an alcoholic. It may be true that she didn’t have a psychotic episode. It could be that through a mixture of unbearable pain and very poor judgment, she started a chain of bad decisions that snowballed into disaster.
I have not read or heard anyone else put forth this particular theory. I did this mostly for my own interest and am simply sharing it here with everyone.
I heard Warren Hance’s eulogy at his daughters’ funeral. It’s heart-breaking.
I’ve got a different story…. one just as based on conjecture, but I think fits the facts a little better.
Diane was an alcoholic, but tried very hard to hide it from her husband, who she was becoming estranged from and the rest of her family. The long weekend had set her teeth to grinding and her head to aching as the lack of alcohol had sent her almost or completely into the DT’s. She concocted the plan to drive all of the kids back to give her a chance to drink and smoke to alleviate the symptoms. She was old hat at this sort of recovery, probably having drunk like this in one way or another since her early teens.
She stopped at the McDonalds and purchased orange juice to use as a quick chaser, but found the onset of DTs were too quick. The alcohol would actually take over two hours to offset the extreme state of withdrawal she was already experiencing. She purchased pain relievers but they did nothing for the ache in her head or the tremors she was feeling. The kids were getting upset and she was getting lost, inebriated, disoriented and starting to get very ill. She knew she needed to retain the alcohol so she smoked the marijuana she’d brought along for the trip. Still the shakes were coming, so she dosed herself more and more until finally she was just a filter titration system headed towards oblivion.
As she drove the wrong way, the motion of objects in her vision were a mild representation of scenery. The alignment in her car and her still barely functioning reptilian brain were trying everything in the drowning sensation of slow alcoholic unconsciousness to maintain, but finally, when the alcohol level in her blood hit the wrong level, her head lolled, her elbow dropped and the weight pulled the steering wheel into the cleft of the turn of the car, and her momentum and her victim’s momentum collided into this devastating crash.
She never knew a second of the terror the children faced. I don’t think their screams would have roused her. She was gone. Between the pot and the alcohol and the pain killer she’d taken before, she was dead to this world before the cars collided.
I think that’s what happened. I think the phone calls were angry interruptions. Her discard was fear she’d be caught so inebriated. She was concerned only for her discomfort and hiding the details of her condition from another adult. A coward, dying a prideful, coward’s death taking innocents with her.
That’s a valid theory as well, and frankly, it sounds like it is more likely what happened than my account.
No worries… I’ve seen someone detox before… It’s not pretty. They’ll lie to your face, scream and yell, really do anything to get what they want and bypass any restriction you throw up in front of them.
Parts of this story have not been filled in yet. Why was she going over the Tappan Zee Bridge to get to long island? Shouldn’t she have got off 87 and gone dowm the Palisades or GSP to go over the GWB? She was heading north to Briarcliff then coming back south on the Taconic? She was lost and far from where she should have been. Why did she go into Westchester? Who called her at 12:08? That seems to be the key moment, she was ok at 11:45 then got that call, then got lost and called her brother at 12:58 from the tappan zee bridge. The timeline, locations and missing time are key here and have not been explained. Her brother needs to reveal exactly what happened on that call with him, and why did he not call the police at 12:58? It took her another 1/2 hour to finally crash, what was he doing all that time? These are obvious gaps that people out there have information about but have not revealed.
Also interested in how the writer knows she went our drinking after work and other information that has not been out there much. Lets hear from your sources to prove it.
Happy to jp. The New York Post interviewed one of her coworkers at Cablevision – she was the one who told them about the after-work visits to the bar.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/wed_woes_drove_crash_ma_to_drink_Mr6vxWRqeoQ7jj0oHM4T5L
Thanks. I’d be interested to hear more from this person as they claim they have still not found anyone who saw her drunk. its interesting to go back to the inital new reports, the story from the family seems to have changed quite a bit over time as more toxicology came out. what happened to the pot smoking for insomnia her family talked about? and the phone call to her brother where she was described as being drunk by the niece? did they find any evidence of pot in her car? I guess it was pretty burned up, but did she have anything in her pockets? it wasn’t her car, so she probably didn’t have a place to stash it.
This story broke my heart..but it just confuses the hell out of me. I just dont get what the helll Diane was thinking??? Or how noone knew she had a problem! Thoses kids must have been terrified!
I drink only on very rare occasions. The last time I drank was the previous Thanksgiving, when I had a few spicy egg-nogs.
I’m not an alcoholic. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t drive down to the package-store right now, buy a handle of vodka (yuck!), guzzle the bottle, and drive home heavily intoxicated.
What are they trying to argue? That because she wasn’t known to drink, that she couldn’t have been drunk?
I’ve never done heroin. Does that mean I couldn’t go out tonight, buy a bundle of dope, and overdose on it? “He couldn’t have died from a heroin overdoes – he wasn’t a junkie!”
Fucking morons, man. They found raw alcohol in her stomach! WHERE, pray tell, did THAT come from?
They found a BOTTLE of VODKA (or whatever it was) IN the VAN. But he goes to bed “…every night knowing his heart is clear..she did not drink…” OKAY! Her BAC was .19, they found six ounces of alcohol in her stomach, and a bottle of liquor in the van. But she “…couldn’t have…” drank.
WHAY…THE…FUCK??!?!???!
I am just in shock over the senseless deaths of so many innocent people. What in the world was going through Diane’s head that day? As an adult, she knew that it was wrong to be drinking while driving and wrong to be drinking with small children in the car. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain, horror, and suffering that Mr. and Mrs. Hance must be experiencing to have lost all 3 of their children. Also, the Longo and Bastardi families must be devasted to lose their loved ones so tragically. This whole situation just breaks my heart for everyone whose lives were affected by the actions of Diane Schuler.
As I read the story, I couldn’t help but think about the frustration that the Hance’s must have been feeling as they spoke to Diane on the phone and they begged her to pull over and wait for them. I shuddered and became angry at the thought that Emma must have felt because she knew that something was wrong with Diane and there was nothing she could do. I don’t like speaking negatively of a deceased person, but Diane Schuler was a selfish and narcissistic individual. This woman was blessed with the ability to be able to have children and she was living a life that many people would love to live, but she still felt empty for some reason. Apparently, she used alcohol to try and fill the void. How dare she endanger the lives of innocent children and people because she felt empty. I personally hope that she pays for what she did in the afterlife.
To the families and friends, I am so sorry for the loss of your loved ones. I send my sincerest condolences. No one ever deserves to lose someone in the tragic way that you lost your loved ones. May they all rest in peace!
It is beyond me why anyone at this point would have much sympathy with this woman. It does not really matter that she was drunk and stoned into oblivion. The fact is that she MURDERED 7 innocent people. How it happened has little bearing. Yes, it could have been a tragic accident if she had not been stoned or drunk but again she still killed 7 innocent people. The fact that the husband not once mentioned how sorry he was for the other families shows just how cold this guy is. I think he should go to hell too! Having said that, does he still have his job because if he admitted his wife smoked pot then we have to assume that he probably did too. The fact he was a civilian working for the police department and didn’t have to report his wife’s pot smoking is outrageous! Also, because he was in a company car he couldn’t follow her home and drive on the same roads? What kind of car was he in? This is just another weird aspect to this case.
My deepest sympathy to all who were touched by this sensless crime!!!
So what happened to the rush for more testing? I think Danny is stalling due to the calls to test her hair for drugs that he knows will be positive. This case went from way too much publicity to an eerie quiet. I think the facts when they come out will be illuminating.
here is some more ‘facts’ on the case from an old post at:
http://www.ncnlocal.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1997
The sister-in-law of the driver that caused the deadly wrong-way, three-car crash that killed eight people on the Taconic State Parkway on Sunday afternoon called state police in Tarrytown around the time of the accident to report a problem with the driver. State police Sgt. Kenneth Cano, from Troop T barracks, which patrols the New York State Thruway, received a call between 1:40 p.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday from Jackie Hance, the sister-in-law of Diane Schuler, the driver of the minivan that caused Sunday’s crash. Jackie Hance called the state police two hours after her husband, Schuler’s brother Warren, spoke with his sister by cell phone, Cano said.
“His (Hance’s) wife said her sister-in-law was driving in a red Ford Windstar minivan with a ski rack,” Cano said. “She said her husband had called her (Schuler) and she said she wasn’t feeling well.”
Warren Hance told Schuler to pull off the side of the road and he would drive from his Long Island home to pick her up. Jackie Hance called the state police because her husband was unsuccessful in attempts to call Schuler back, Cano said.
“I think he told [Schuler] to pull over,” Cano said. “He tried calling her back and couldn’t get her. I got the impression that she was a very dependable person and it was unusual that he couldn’t reach her.”
Schuler told her brother, in the phone call, that she was driving back to Long Island from a weekend camping trip in Sullivan County via the New York State Thruway to Route 287 on to Interstate 95 and over the Throggs Neck Bridge, he said.
“The only thing about the phone call was someone in the minivan said they saw a Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown sign on the road,” Cano said. “I didn’t sense any panic from the sister-in-law, but she was very concerned.”
Jackie Hance’s phone call came into police a few minutes after Sunday’s 1:35 p.m. accident on the Taconic. State police out of Tarrytown, including Cano, began a 40-mile sweeping patrol of Schuler’s possible route, checking the sides of the roads and rest stops, he said.
“When I got the call [from Jackie Hance], we weren’t aware of the accident on the Taconic,” Cano said. “I was looking for [Schuler] on the [Hutchinson River Parkway]. I had the impression that she had pulled over to the side of the road.”
Twenty-five minutes after the accident, Warren Hance arrived at the state police barracks in Tarrytown, unaware that his sister was involved in the crash on the Taconic.
I have no doubt that Diane was drunk and high. But, her husband could be on to something. Blood clots comes in all sizes – some small enough to be overlooked during autopsy. What if a tiny blood clot in a certain part of her brain caused Diane to become an instant alcoholic, the reverse of the following?
Jan. 25, 2007
Scientists ID Brain Area For Smoking Urge
Research Inspired By Stroke Victim Who Lost Urge To Smoke; Discovery Could Shed Light On Addiction
(AP) Damage to a coin-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction.
The research was inspired by a stroke survivor who claimed he simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction — no cravings, no nicotine patches, not even a conscious desire to quit.
“The quitting is like a light switch that went off,” said Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California, who scanned the brains of 69 smokers and ex-smokers to pinpoint the region involved. “This is very striking.”
The finding, reported in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, points scientists toward new ways to develop anti-smoking aids by targeting this little-known brain region called the insula. And it sparked excitement among addiction specialists who expect the insula to play a key role in other addictions, too.
“It’s a fantastic paper, it’s a fantastic finding,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a longtime investigator of the brain’s addiction pathways.
“What this study shows unequivocally is the insula is a key structure in the brain for perceiving the urges to take the drug,” urges that are “the backbone of the addiction,” Volkow added.
Why? The insula appears to be where the brain turns physical reactions into feelings, such as feeling anxious when your heart speeds up. When those reactions are caused by a particular substance, the insula may act like sort of a headquarters for cravings.
Some 44 million Americans smoke, and the government says more than 400,000 a year die of smoking-related illnesses. Declines in smoking have slowed in recent years, making it unlikely that the nation will reach a public health goal of reducing the rate to 12 percent by 2010.
Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known, and it is common for smokers to suffer repeated relapses when they try to quit.
So imagine Bechara’s surprise at hearing a patient he code-named “Nathan” note nonchalantly that “my body forgot the urge to smoke” right after his stroke.
At the time, Bechara was at the University of Iowa studying the effects of certain types of brain damage after strokes or other injury. While Nathan was hospitalized, stroke specialists sent his information to that brain registry. He was 38, had smoked since 14, said he enjoyed it and had had no intention to quit. But his last puff was the night before his stroke. His surprised wife said he never even asked for a smoke while in the hospital.
It is not unusual for a health scare to prompt an attempt at quitting. “That’s the quitting that’s not as interesting,” Bechara said.
Instead, Nathan experienced what Bechara calls a “disruption of smoking addiction,” and he wanted to know why.
Bechara and colleagues culled their brain-damage registry for 69 patients who had smoked regularly before their injuries. Nineteen, including Nathan, had damage to the insula. Thirteen of the insula-damaged patients had quit smoking, with 12 of them quitting within a day of the brain injury and neither smoking nor even feeling the urge since then.
Of the remaining 50 patients with damage in other brain regions, 19 quit smoking but only four met the broken-addiction criteria.
If Bechara’s findings are validated, they suggest that developing drugs that target the insula might help smokers quit. There are nicotine receptors in the insula, meaning it should be possible to create a nicotine-specific drug, Bechara said — albeit years from now.
More immediately, NIDA’s Volkow wants to try a different experiment: Scientists can temporarily alter function of certain brain regions with pulses of magnetic energy, called “transcranial magnetic stimulation.” She wants to see if it is possible to focus such magnetic pulses on the insula, and thus verify its role.
Other neurologic functions are known to be involved with addiction, too, such as the brain’s “reward” or pleasure pathways. The insula discovery does not contradict that work, but adds another layer to how addiction grips the brain, Bechara said.
What if I could teach pelicans how to talk? What if I can figure out how to make shoestrings into pure Palladium with the power of my MIND? What if I can sow doubt in the minds of a jury and help prevent them from blaming my wife for the vehicular homicide of a bunch of children and 3 unrelated people, and somehow keep myself from insolvency?
Oh wait, the last isn’t one of mine, it’s the husband’s transparent motivations. This sort of what if game isn’t very useful. It’s actually kinda a failure.
I wish we could teach pelicans to talk…….much more sensible use of our time than the efforts by the spouse to prevent blame from attaching to Diane for the multiple deaths she was responsible for…and then we could work on teaching ferrets to conjugate german verbs!
wonder whats up with this website?
http://danielschuler.com/
Nothing there now, but who knows what they are planning.
I don’t think this one is in Hell. She made some really horrible decisions to start drinking, after she started., the booze was in control. I know what that’s like! The booze has made me do some things my concious would completely disagree with. I feel sorry for the children here. They were helpless. Hopefully she just has to walk the Earth for an eternity in purgitory. Hell no, .forever in purgitory and misery., yes.
Despite popular myth, there are no brain cells floating around in alcoholic beverages that add thoughts or truly can exert any “control” on you. She was a murderer from the first sip.
If you think alcohol is taking control, you should instead look in the mirror, dead sober, and determine what inside of you is actually “taking control.”
http://loudnews.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/bastardi-daughters-have-no-compassion-for-the-living/
here is a disturbing website that discusses this accident. i have had numerous emails with this paper asking them to back up the claims of the story. All they do is parrot the shuler attorney claims of absurd explainations and blame the victims families for not going away. i repeatedly asked them for any facts; however, rather than quoting a single actual fact they were reduced to quoting scriptures to me. check it out and let them know how you feel.
Beyond insanity-brings blame the victim to a whole new level-the theory that she had encephalytis (sp?) causing the wreck? The site you found brings insanity and absurdity to a whole new level……
Disturbing isn’t the word. I left a comment, but I doubt this guy will have the guts to actually approve it for posting. I did challenge him to come here and take us on, but he won’t do that either. Anyways, it was a good comment, and I think somebody should get to read it, so here it is:
I would love to hear there response…if any of course. Those kind of people remind me of an old saying..”It is better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you have intelligence then to open your mouth and remove that impression from there minds”
It may be petty, but using the stars at the top of the article, give it 1 star.
i had a day long email exchange with someone at that website. Here is the conversation in it’s entirety.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 9:31 PM, Arnold The Pig wrote:
I feel sad for you that you don’t understand what a fact is.
I feel sad for us that the internet has allowed free speech to co-opt supposed journalism to the point where people like you think it is ok to spew misinformation.
I wouldnt give you the smug satisfaction of trying to talk me into a corner with your twisted logic. You would not succeed.
I have not accused that guy of anything. The only thing i want from you is to admit that you have no facts to support what he is claiming happened. What happened to the anebesol theory? You are pathetc pawns and are too blind to see how stupid you look. Look around, there is no public opinion support for this.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 7:57 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
We wrote the truth, you just can’t handle it!
Where are Dan Schuler’s accusers, just you, there is no evidence, ask the New York
State Police and Westchester County District Attorney, there are no charges.
Experts have said, sickness could have caused Diane Schuler’s
confusion.
I feel sad for you that you can’t accept the facts.
Where you related to the victims?
Would you like to do an on camera interview with The Westchester News?
I see that you need to vent, would you like to vent on camera with us?
Let us know because we will be glad to accommodate you.
Remember the law in this country… Innocent Until Proven Guilty!
On Sep 30, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Arnold The Pig wrote:
Nope. I am going to keep writing until you back your truth claims about false information in this case.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 5:40 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
Are you done yet?
On Sep 30, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Arnold wrote:
What truth???? You have not provided me with one single shred of truth, as i have repeatedly challenged you to do.
I will be forwarding this entire thread to your papers editor. I stand behind every word i have said. Can you say the same with a straight face? If any thing you claim is true, please back it up now on the record. This is a travesty of misinformation, guess your brand of lies is better than those of the evil westchestchester. You are made for each other, apparently.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 4:34 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
If you can’t handle the truth stay out of The Westchester News!
On Sep 30, 2009, at 4:12 PM, Arnold Palmer PhD wrote:
My anger is healthy and is directed at this misrepresentation of facts by a media outlet. Dont analyze me how dare you quote proverbs to me.
I know you are a liar since in four emails you have not stated one fact beyond the propaganda by the least compassionate person on earth, barbara.
Here is what happened. Diane was trapped with that jerk and all those kids camping and couldnt call the guy she was having an affair with. He called her at 1145 and broke up with her She got plastered on the way home. Had a fight with her brother on the phone and decided to kill herself, punish danny by killing his kids and her brother by killing his kids. There was something about that phone call, she told her brother what she was going to do. He called the police and sped off to stop her. Her plan suceeded. That has as much basis in fact as your denials.
People as misguided as you should not be given access to the public to foster such misrepresentations of the truth.
Don’t bother responding with more proverbs unless you provide names, motives, and details to support you corruption and lying scenarios. This is the worst kind of abuse of the media.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 4:01 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
I think you have a lot of misplaced anger inside, it’s not Dan Schuler’s fault
this happened, it happened, and we all have to live with it.
Just like 911, who’s fault is it?
Just like those little girls on the news that lost their lives in the house fire,
who’s fault is it?
We can’t control what we can’t control, but we can control
our lives by taking one day at a time, and by trusting God!
Proverbs 3:5&6
Here is another verse in the Holy Bible!
And we know all things work together for good for those that love God,
and those that are called by God, and predestined by God.
All Things, not some, but All Things.. even the Taconic Parkway Crash.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 3:41 PM, Arnold Palmer PhD wrote:
You don’t even mention his own inlaws who lost their entire family. Its obvious that her brother knows something too. What did he say to her that made her throw the phone out the window? Unbelievable
I still don’t see any reference to facts in your argument. You revert back to conspiracy mode, who specifically is corrupt, what is their motive, why would they do this? What do they have to gain. How many people does it take to pull off this conspiracy? Multiple agencies and labs and doctors. So i guess westchester is like nazi germany eh?
Sorry but we all have grief to live with. I really don’t feel the need to give him any extra compassion when he has not once publicly shown any, not even to his own family. He still has a son, his inlaws have lost everything.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 3:27 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
I think if you pull your hand away from covering your eyes,
you will be able to see clearly. Try it!
The facts are this… you cannot believe a government so polluted by corruption
Lies and deceit, that covers up the facts in so many minuet details. A man like Dan Schuler
has nothing left except his little boy, he’s a man with grief beyond our knowledge, a man
in mourning beyond comprehension, a man so numb from a situation that is so surreal, he can’t
Feel his heart or possible know his soul. What State of mind is this world in when we are not
afraid to attack a broken man.
He who is without sin cast the first stone…
On Sep 30, 2009, at 2:59 PM, Arnold Palmer PhD wrote:
I have no idea who i am speaking with or who wrote that article But you state it as if it were fact when it is opinion. using shulers words verbatim as fact, and call it the truth but don’t even use quotes or attribute it to him. In a case where everyone craves the facts as part of the healing and rationalization process you just perpetuate the denial statements. If you have facts to back up your opinion lets hear them. Give us all the catharsis we need in this case. The known facts are pointing toward a different truth than is evident in this opinion. How you call that an opinion i don’t know. Its my opinion that it is dark during the day.
Tell me the way it is, please. Thats all i want is the truth.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 2:48 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
You know everyone is initialed to their opinion, I respect yours and in-return
you should respect the opinion of our viewers. The way you see it, is not the
way it is…
On Sep 30, 2009, at 2:34 PM, Arnold Palmer PhD wrote:
Sorry if you think i was the abusive one, but your slant of blaming the victims is too much to take. Even if the men in that truck were drunk escaped murderers, it was the actions of diane schuler that caused their deaths for no good reason. The husband has never aplogized, after first admitting she smkes pot, on the advice of thata barbara lawyer he has done nothing but try to cover his tracks personally. Its all about him. Then you jump on the band wagon refuting toxicology and all logic to say she had a stroke. Well i know many stroke victims and none of them acted the way she did. What about the obvious hours of horror she put those kids through? Absolultely they knew they were in danger way back on rt 17. Why exacerbate a bad situation by siding with the ones at fault over the innocent victims? Whoever they are they deserve justice and its clear schuler knows they have the law on their side and all he is doing is pretending to be in denial when
he is not and is only trying to save himself. If he had once said he was sorry he would not have this backlash against him.
My responses to you were in the appropriate tone for the level of arrogance on your part to politicize a human tragedy so you can vilify some poeple who did not ask to be put in the public spotlight.
I drive that road every week, i saw the miles of skidmarks of people swerving to the right to avoid that maniac. There is .43 miles of shoulder immediately preceeding the crash site. I spend hours on that road reliving the terror. It was a death wish and it came true. Too bad she didnt just stop on the bridge and jump off and spare all those lives.
Good luck with your agenda.
On Sep 30, 2009, at 1:18 PM, “Bocce Balls Productions inc. New York” wrote:
Keep your focus on your opinion about the story,
and maybe we’ll approve it.
I’m talking with him/her now. I don’t think I’m getting through.
There are too many unanswered questions, too many assumptions.
I have no interest in proving Diane’s innocence yet I am still drawn to this story as I feel it is an article that is missing a few chapters.
Why did Diane call her brother and not her husband?
Diane’s body was fried, how are accurate toxicology results obtained by this?
Ethanol the same alcohol found in vodka is also found in gasoline.
I am leaning toward the conclusion that Diane downed all this liquor, but something is still nagging at me that perhaps, her brother knows much more than he has admitted to.
Best to list those and go through them. Ten thousand lines of code looks like a lot of work, until you’re at the 9999 th line of fully debugged code and you hit the carriage return to type the last statement. This list is pretty good, but let’s move on.
An interesting question, but why would this affect the missing chapters?
Her cause of death wasn’t smoke inhalation or even burning. She was killed on impact. Her body was burnt to a crisp, alcohol and blood were found, drawn and tested. To toxicology tests, they’re extremely accurate in most cases, and toxicologists have very simple and sometimes complex tables that can help determine metabolic rate, decay, denaturing of protein and an extensive library of information about alcohol in the body. It’s a very mature science with a very, very solid body of knowledge.
Vodka is 35-50% Ethanol by volume. The vast majority of the remainder (roughly 65 to 50%) is water. Gasoline is up to 10% Ethanol, but the US standard is roughly 5.9%.
Gasoline is immiscible in water, and absorbs only a small amount of water when exposed. The Ethanol is stable in suspension of the fuel. If they had found 6 grams of Ethanol in her stomach that would mean they’d found almost 94 grams of Gasoline in her stomach. If you want to stress 10%, we’re still talking about 54 grams of pure or less than 2 ounces of gasoline that make it from the gas tank or engine into her stomach and then don’t show up on a toxicology report where the Ethanol does?
No, the absorption rate of alcohol is swift, finding a few grams, which is a very, very small amount of alcohol in her stomach is conclusive that she was drinking to up to a few minutes of the crash or as she crashed. Even after death, her stomach doesn’t stop processing alcohol, it’s actually the cease of blood flow to give fresh blood to the organ and to dilute the alcohol that stops absorption.
That’s a reasonable question, but I don’t see why there’s so much concern about the facts and time line as listed above?
Her alcohol content is easy to determine, or at least relatively easy to determine from the toxicology reports. The timing of the phone calls is easy. The absurdity of the Ambesol TM theory is easy. The brain tumor is easily discounted. As far as assumptions, despite the old adage about making an ass out of “u” and “me,” there’s a difference between reasoned assumptions supported by fact and the assumptions based only upon someone’s uninformed opinion.
Should say wasn’t burnt to a crisp.
jason – did you have a fun conversation over at that Westchester website?
Diane’s body was not fried – Only part of her left leg was charred. You can read the autopsy report here as part of our article.
I’m not so sure her brother hasn’t told the whole truth. He has nothing to gain by protecting the sister that killed his entire family, unless he’s worried about being sued because he was the owner of the mini-van she was driving.
Whether she was an alcoholic or not is, I believe, a moot point. No matter how often she used alcohol and/or drugs, or how many “illnesses” she was suffering from, or whether or not she had a stroke or diabetic episode….NONE of those things cause you to drive in the aggressive, erratic way Diane was witnessed to be driving before the crash. If anything, any one of those “excuses” would have made her drive more slowly…much more slowly. It is obvious to me that she was on a suicide mission, and also that she must have been very, very angry with her husband and brother at the time. Obviously she was using the children to punish them for something. I read somewhere previously that the husband and brother had planned on fishing that day, while she returned with the children. Was that what she was mad about? A trip that was supposed to be a family event, yet the men dumped her off with the kids once again while they went to have fun? Obviously, the men know much more about the situation than they are admitting, they are just trying to cya…
Being told you’re going to hell by someone obviously convinced they’re more saintly than you, rarely is a lot of fun. I don’t think I reached him/her with any of my words. If you think it’s needs repeating here, that’s fine, but for the most part, he/she just seemed to be convinced that very soon we’d all be meeting our maker and that we’d all be sorry.
I’ve been out of town this weekend, I have this one post I wanted to make, but Admin rightfully talked me out of. It’s about a family member convinced of the persecution of their loved one despite everything said about them, and it’s pretty tragically sad. Someone ought to do a study and simply commit people when they start down this route. It’s so painful to watch and it’s not going to get better without professional help.
Our family is adamant because, first of all, we know this is not something Diane would have done. It is hard waiting this long for the proof to come out, but when it does (and it will, rest assured), I hope Baby Erin, Allie, Katie, Emma and ESPECIALLY poor Diane can FINALLY Rest In Peace. Second, we need to fight for Diane’s innocence for Bryan’s sake. The last thing he needs is to be able to hop online when he is a bit older and healthier, “google” his mother’s name, as I did, and find TRASH such as the lies (yes, your words on this website are LIES) on this site. It’s funny, are YOU (meaning the creator of this nasty website) also associated with the Bastardi’s, like the Westchester M.E. is? Yep, he’s a close family friend… has been for years.. so I’m guessing you are, too. Thank you so very much for slandering my family’s name.
Oh good grief! More babbling of injustice and ‘just wait for the proof’ BS from a delusional family member.
Please, tell me what the Bastardi family has to gain by all this conspiracy BS you spout? Don’t you think it would be a hell of a lot easier for them if this POS woman had had a medical condition instead of being so evil as to get drunk/high and kill a bunch of innocent people?
Your family has a lot more to gain by denying the facts and trying to spin your BS. Oh, and I love how your despicable family implies that the victims are at fault or less worthy of sympathy!
Thank you for showing your true colors as selfish people-easy to see where the drunk, doper murderer got it. Perhaps her behavior wasn’t as aberrant as you are so desperate to have us believe.
Sorry, but no one here at PYSIH are in any way associated with the Bastardi family. In fact, until Diane Schuler reduced the number of Bastardis on Planet Earth by two, we’d never heard of them, or the Schulers for that matter. And to tell the truth, considering the circumstances of our “introductions”, we wish we never had.
Now, let’s get to the lies I supposedly told when I wrote this article. You’re going to have to be more specific than than, because you know, I distinctly remember verifying everything I wrote with a legitimate source, just like any other journalist. Things like police reports and press releases and autopsy reports. I need names, dates, sources of your information proving that I lied. Otherwise you’re just another horses ass like Daniel.
Explain to me the 6 grams of alcohol in Diane’s stomach, the drug tests that showed she smoked pot less than 45 minutes before she killed 7 innocent people, the .19 Blood Alcohol Content in her blood, urine, and eyeball fluid and her erratic behavior on NY Route 267. Why did Diane toss the phone out of the van a half hour before she killed nearly everyone in it? These are all facts backed up by either the official autopsy report or the New York State Police. Are you saying there is a vast conspiracy to “get” Diane Schuler?
And here’s the kicker for me. What does anyone gain by saying Diane Schuler was drunk at the time of the accident? As far as any lawsuit goes, the fact that she was driving the wrong way on the Taconic damns her sober or drunk, legally speaking. Do you realize how many people would have to get on board from Law Enforcement and the Medical examiner’s office in this incredibly high profile case for the conspiracy to succeed, all for a gain of nil? Does that make any sense at all, because that’s what the Schulers are essentially trying to get us to believe.
As for your claim that the Westchester County Medical Examiner is a close personal friend of the Bastardis, I’m calling you on that. You’re a bald faced liar. Who told you that – Dominic Barbara? The only bigger fool than him is his client.
Oh yes, let’s not forget the Hanse’s little daughters. Kate, Alyson, and Emma must be rolling in their graves every time one of you people tells anther lie about what caused Diane’s erratic behavior. Because they know the truth. Well, Bryan does too – I wonder how he’ll reconcile his memories of that day with what his family will tell him “happened”. Have any of you considered that? I doubt it. If Bryan ever reads this website, my conscious is clear, because I told the truth – can you and the rest of your family say the same? Can his father say the same?
And what’s taking YOUR tests so long to complete? I can’t wait to see them, especially the hair follicle tests. It’s going to a real pleasure shoving those results up the Schuler family’s asses one by one.
So Max… when do I get to buy you a beer? ;)
LoL – I don’t drink Becky, but I’ll take a ginger ale. Diet – I can’t handle the hard stuff. :>)
YOU ARE SUCH A WILD MAN! I love ginger ale, but my all-time fav is creme soda. If there is a God, he/she drinks creme soda.
Sadly the delusional family member can’t even sum up a tidbit of sympathy for the dead victims..only “poor Diane”…says a lot about the family now, doesn’t it? The grief stricken families of the innocent victims concocted a conspiracy to frame Diane for ….what? I would think the family of the victims would feel better if it had been a medical condition, something unpreventable rather than knowing their deaths were the act of a selfish self centered arrogant person.
I read on another site somewhere a post by an RN at the hospital when they brought Diane Schuler in that is was apparent that she was intoxicated. i guess you could smell it on her?
Anyway, i think the ‘family’ could have avoided all the backlash and negative feeling very easliy by addressing the victims first and then apoligzing publicly and then moving on to Diane’s prediciment. Everyone would be more sympathetic if it weren’t for the blatant denials of fact and inference. At first it seemed they may be heading that way until Danny lawyered up and it took a turn into the gutter for him. They were almost on the verge of being forthcoming when the whole story shifted. I am curious what hard evidence they can produce to come up with a different story?
Wonder what the cops will come up with. Did she have pot with her? Did a gps tell her to get on that road? was all the evidence burned up?
in keeping with listing sources, here is the one i referenced in the last post.
http://www.topix.com/us/2009/08/driver-in-deadly-taconic-crash-diane-schuler-was-drunk-had-marijuana-in-system-say-sources
As an RN who works where they took her dead body, I can tell you they knew the results in minutes. Why not tell everyone up front? If the world knew the truth people would have spit on her casket instead of crying over it. And what kind of stupid husband did she have? He allowed his wife to take 5 kids to there death as well as kill 3 innocent men and don’t forget the 3 injured people. The 3 injured people will be living in pain longer than it takes her body to rot in the ground. It angers me that the truth was not told right away “to protect the families”..eventually they would know the truth and now they have to be hurt and angry all over again. And please tell me the auto insurance company is NOT going to give her family one cent!! If they give her family replacement value for her vehicle and pay for the dead in the car they are saying its OK to drive drunk and high. And the nerve of her taking her brothers 3 kids in her hands…your own brother. This story is so sickening I wished she lived just so she could get 40 whips at a whipping post. Please, those that read this, don’t drink and drive and give to MADD who has helped in many ways to stop sensless tragedies like this. I guess we need DWI/DUI stops all day and night as this happened in the early afternoon and no one thinks anyone is drunk then.
A long time ago I was doing research at the medical examiners office in Dallas and was watching autopsies on totally burned bodies. They had been in a plane crash. The pilot had had a heart attack. He was fixing to retire and was showing a new guy what route to inspect oil and gas lines. They were both crispy and burnt beyond reconition. It is amazing that even when a body gets burnt like that that you can still do a totally complete autopsy. The bodies insides might be like a medium rare steak but it does not erase what is there. Only in temperatures like when a body is cremated and nothing but bones fragments remain is there little to find. The body is an amazing thing. I am anxiously awaiting the results of hair test on Diane and still would like to see her husband tested as well.
I still want to know why her husband could not drive his vehicle on the same roads and she could. I also would like to know if he still has his job in the police department.
My heart still goes out to the innocent victims and their families!
http://loudnews.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/long-islands-diane-schuler-is-she-really-a-drunk-and-drug-addict/#comment-103
This paper just doens’t get it. Freedom of speech should not apply to people who don’t know what they are talking about. give us all a break. See ya in hell Diane.
Also misses a point-doesn’t matter if she were a drug/alcholic -you can get plastered only one time in your life, decide to drive and kill people….even if they could prove she was not an alcoholic drug abuser, that would not negate the fact that she drank, drove and killed people……..
i guess i did my work well. that Westchester website threatened to send the FBI to my house.
That’s mildly hypocritical given they believe the government is so corrupt…
If the FBI does show up, will you share some of the money you get from suing them and him? Nothing big, I figure 2% should be about 200K or so, I’d like to add a new addition to the house, a pier on the lake, etc….
Did they really jp? On what grounds? That you told them the truth, and invaded their fantasy? Like Jason, I also find it ironic that their siccing the government on you, after professing that the have no trust of gov’t institutions.
BTW, how are you getting your comments approved – mine are being completely ignored, and there not even as good as yours are. It might have something to do with PYSIH…but I don’t get any response at all from the webmaster.
search the site for Shculer and it will give a list of the many articles, many of them don’t seem to have any moderation of the comments. Although after i went on there, they are probably screening them all… :)
here is what they said.
“If you send us one more threatening defaming comment, we will make sure the FBI come knocking on your door. You have said some really sick things about this blog that we did not release onto the internet. Do not send us any more of your comments.
You are the only one who is obsessed with this story, no one else. We are investigative News Reporters doing our job, we inform the public about our findings, that’s what we do.
Now go away and do not comeback this way again unless you want the FBI knocking on your door.
The Westchester News “
They can send you a cease and desist letter, but they can’t send the FBI after you. If you interfere with their site functionality and thus the collection of revenue they can sue you, but it’s a long and hard road.
Wow maybe they will bring the men in black with them. hope they get their meds adjusted as they seem to believe their delusion that they are investigative journalists……
I heard the phone tapes that were just released with the police and warren hance. Interesting that when they are discussing calling diane’s cell phone they mention her voice mail says Diane Hance, not Schuler.
Thanks jp, I have those tapes now. I’ll add them to the Update I just did on this story. I’m becoming more and more convinced that this “She’s sick” line was a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact that she was drunk and they knew it. It just sounded fish the way the guy through it out there for the cop, without any prompting. I smell a rat.
Did you ever hear a 911 call by a person who committed the murder, like a husband reporting the murder of his wife? He always starts laying out his alibi to the 911 operator instead of just reporting the crime – offering to many details, especially ones that make him look innocent. I felt I was hearing the same kind of thing when I heard, “She’s sick.”
I saw this posting on craigslist (‘best of’, titled ‘I saw that crash on the Taconic last Sunday…’) – while it is long, it is a stunning first-hand account from a witness to this tragedy:
link: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/1306619502.html
Text: Driver in N.Y. wreck that killed 8 was intoxicated
Im sure other people on this board must have seen it as well. I was drvivng home from my summer house upstate. There was a 10 minute rain storm so everyone slowed down, then the rain stopped and everyone sped up again…. Suddenly about a mile from the turn to get on the sawmill, cars just stopped . Brake lights as far as I could see. Stopped in the middle of a three lane highway…There were trees in the median bewtween the north and southbound lanes, and behind the tress was a huge, black plume of smoke going up into the sky. I was on a motorcycle, so i could go between the cars and move up to see what happened. Once I came around the bend, off to the side of the southbound lane, a mini van was upside down, completly engufled in flames. I could feel the heat from the flames as I pulled by. Hundreds of people were running from both sides of the North and South lanes of the Taconic. I pulled over and got off my bike, and try to take in what was happening.
The burning mini van was popping and sparking every once in a while, I assume something inside was making small explosions as they caught fire. I pulled behind a white van on the side of the highway, a Chinese man got out and was talking to me but frankly i cant remember a word we said to each other. About 20 feet from the burning mini van, there were clusters of people kneeling around what I assumed were the crash victims. Every 10 feet or so, there was another cluster, kneeling down. Each one had a person pumping the chest of the victims while the other people were helping any way the can. Everyone was running with they’re cellphones screaming frantically.
I noticed what looked like a station wagon, across the median. The entire front was smashed to the point where you wondered where the hell the engine could have gone. it looked like the cars front began at the front seat. I noticed the cluster of people closest to me, probably 15 feet away, and I saw a pair of tiny blue shorts, and small legs sticking out from the group of people. I knew it was a child, and as the father of a 6 year old daughter, I knew it was a girl. I couldnt see her face, only her blue shorts and her legs. Nothing was moving. A man in a white shirt was pumping her chest, and screaming for help. I thought for a moment of walking over to see what i could do, but it was so chaotic, and there were so many people already. People just abandoned theyre cars on the highway and ran to help. I looked at her legs, and there wasnt a scratch on them. I looked at the man pumping her chest, with the white shirt on. Every so often he’d turn to scream something, and there was no blood on the front of his shirt.I thought about what she may have looked like from the waist up, and I’m really glad I never got to see her face. There was one cop there when I arrived, and you could see on her face, that she was really freaking out. She must have just pulled up before I got there and was assesing the situation. I’ll never forget the look of panic on her face. One man ran passed us and got a first aid kit out of his trunk. All this happened in probably 4 minutes. Now you could hear people screaming to get back in they’re cars because the fire engines couldn’t get through . The fire engine was stuck behind all the cars on the Northbound side. Sirens and lights wailing.. An EMS guy jumped from the fire truck and started running towords the scene, screaming into his walkie. I noticed a man leaning against his car weeping. Total strangers were coming up to him and huggin him, and by his body language and his movements of what he was describing, I knew he was one of the people that pulled these kids out of that burning car. He was inconsolable. So were the people hugging him. I got back on my motorcycle, and turned on to the Sawmill, back to NY. I saw her legs and blue shorts over and over again. i could not get them out of my head. I pulled over a mile down the road, got of my bike and starting crying harder then I’ve cried in a long time. I’ve been a New Yorker for 23 years. It takes a lot to shock or disturb us, but holy shit , this disturbed me.
It was a horrible thing to see. It’s effected me in a surprising way, still is a week later. I have a daughter, and the thought of course thats been running through my head, along with the never ending vision of those little blue shorts, and pale white legs, not moving, it could have been her. In my dreams when i see the man in the white shirt pumping her chest, i walk over and see my daughters face. Not a scratch on her, just eyes closed as if shes sleeping. I imagine thats what that little girl looked like while they were desperatly trying to get her to breathe.
I rode by the spot yesterday coming back from upstate again. Theres a big chunk of earth where the mini van rolled and scorched grass where it sat and burned. I thought I saw a cross with some flowers on it , but I wasnt sure.
As the facts come out about what really happened, and turns out this woman was drunk, and high, I’m torn between anger and incredible sadness. Anger as an adult and father, who’s sole purpose in life is to protect, and teach my child right from wrong. Anger having seen a dead child laying in the middle of the median, knowing that child was probably singing or playing with her doll, having no concept she was going the wrong way on a fucking highway, trusting her mother. Completely innocent. My God, I hope 4 those girls died on impact. Never knowing what hit them. I can honestly say, having sene that wreckage, they must have.
Sadness as a husband and father. This man will now have to explain to his only living son, what happened to his mother and his sisters one day. Not to mention the aunts and uncles of the nieces she also killed.
If anyone from these shattered families do read this, you have my deepest sympathy . Its little help but try to take some solace in the fact that hundreds, and I mean hundreds of people ran to help as best they could. It was utter chaos, but these people had the instinct and bravery to jump out of theyre cars, and run to a burning car to pull everyone out. They did the best they could with the little they had. It was truly inspiring……
I will NEVER get the image of those little blue shorts, and legs out of my head……I don’t have some big message to end on or a moral of any kind. I’m simply getting what I saw off my chest, though it will be with me for the rest of my life.
Thanks for listening.
Peace
** I’m not commenting about my opinions on this case. More, I wanted to point out what the writer of this posting stated very clearly — there has to be literally hundreds of other victims of this catastrophe, and those are the people who were there and valiantly did all they could to help. I would bet the things those people saw that day will never be forgotten.
Thanks Ellen, but I posted this letter as part of the Diane Schuler Update, back on Wednesday. Your conclusions are exactly the same as the ones I came up with – If you head over to the Diane Schuler Update, you can read it for yourself.
Thanks, I did just that (read the updates), plus many other stories on the site. Thanks very much.
i hate this “i need pot to cure insomnia” deal.
guess what, if you have insomnia….use legal, doctor prescribed pills. especially if you have children in the home!
‘Legal, doctor prescribed pills’ have, like pot, different side effects for different people. Those pills put me to sleep for 12 hours straight even if I break them in half. Ever try to break one o’ them suckers in quarters? I’m talking the plain-wrap over the counter versions. I’ve tried the prescriptions. They’re worse. I need 6-8 hours of sleep a night to feel awake and well rested the next day. 12 and still groggy is unacceptable. I cannot function that way.
Pot has been around for thousands of years, tried and tested by generations of people all over the world and not all of them for recreational purposes. I’d be a hypocrite if I said I don’t enjoy it, but so would many who uses Vicodin for pain. I don’t get those nasty side effects with pot. There is no hangover. There is no stomach cramping.
That aside, I agree with you. You shouldn’t smoke pot around children any more than you should drink alcohol around them. The thing with pot is that they can be affected by simply breathing the air around them. Unless they happen to be in the bathroom with the puking, then alcohol certainly does affect the air around them. Especially whiskey puke. Yeesh.
Lots of reasons for yes, lots of reasons for no just like alcohol. We’ve all heard it all before, so no rehashing is necessary.
I live in California. I believe in the responsible use of recreational and/or medicinal drugs by responsible adults. I believe I should be able to pop an aspirin, roll a joint or pour myself a shot, just not all at the same time, if I feel I want or need to. I believe in my ability to be responsible and conduct my life within the laws of my state and local governments and with a sense of the safety of those around me.
Diane Schuler is the kind of person who makes the rest of us look bad. She is in the minority just like other drunk drivers. There are WAY more responsible drinkers than irresponsible ones, it’s just that the responsible ones get no press.
The Federal government has been instructed by our Commander in Chief (however anyone feels about the man, that’s what he is) to stop wasting their time and money busting legally operated marijuana collectives and hauling away otherwise law-abiding citizens when they could be focusing on hardcore crime.
“Legal, doctor-prescribed” sleeping pills are generally more hazardous than marijuana. They cause more side effects (including hallucinations), impair your judgment to a larger extent, and can become toxic at surprisingly low doses — you can’t even OD on pot, given the way it interacts with the body. Frankly, I’d rather a parent smoked a joint before bed than have them pop an Ambien. Even over-the-counter sleeping remedies, such as Nytol, are more potent than marijuana. Sleeping pills induce very, very deep sleep, which can prevent a parent for waking if their child needs them. Weed, on the other hand, usually won’t cause that kind of blackout, provided that you’re using it in moderation.
That having been said, one should NEVER smoke pot (or use any drug that may impair their ability to make quick decisions, including non-recreational medications) before driving. Although it seems that it was mostly the liquor that contributed the accident, the weed definitely didn’t help.
Either marijuana or alcohol could have contributed to this and it would have been a ’simple’ case of stupidity-induced DUI. But both intoxicants together, with a car-full of kids? Is it possible to be that stupid? I have to believe part of Diane was suicidal. She had to know on some level exactly what she was doing. I can’t believe anyone is that stupid, especially a grown adult in charge of multiple innocent lives.
I’ve been reeeeally drunk before. I’ve been reeeeeally stoned. I’ve been both at once even though it’s not smart to combine two different drugs. We’re all idiots sometimes. It’s. O.K. to a point, sometimes being an idiot is fun. Sometimes it’s fun to run down the alley singing “Henry the 8th” at the top of your lungs, and it hurts no one.
I have NEVER driven under the influence of anything. How can you be so intoxicated that you disregard something so important and still remain conscious? I won’t even walk down a street that way for fear of staggering into an oncoming car or some other idiotic thing like that. Even deep in my cups, I’ve never been that stupid, selfish or reckless.
I try to understand Diane’s decisions that night. I just can’t.
I can’t even begin to comprehend what the families must be going through. Christ, how do you even find the will to go on living after something like this? They say time heals all wounds, but I don’t think it can ever fully heal something like this. It’s such a tragedy, and a PREVENTABLE tragedy at that.
I hate that people try to defend this woman by saying that she was too drunk to realize how much of a danger she was. I’ll concede that, after a certain point, she was too intoxicated to realize what she was doing, but the fact remains that she was SOBER when she chose to pick up the bottle and start chugging it with a group of kids in the van with her. She was completely in control of her actions when she started drinking, and I very much doubt that she didn’t realize how out of hand she got while drinking.
I also don’t see why people think that claiming she wasn’t a alcoholic somehow proves that she wasn’t drunk during the accident. You don’t have to be an alcoholic to get totally shitfaced and do something really, really irresponsible. Plus, if she wasn’t an alcoholic, it would make her even more culpable for what happened, as there would be no addiction that might help explain why she even started drinking while driving in the first place.
I can understand why her family doesn’t want to accept the truth, even if they’re going to great lengths to preserve their denial. It’s frustrating to watch, but I don’t think it’s fair to vilify them for it. People don’t think clearly when they’re in grief. They say and do things that seem illogical, because they’re not thinking logically — when you lose someone very suddenly in a traumatic way, the grief can be severe enough to drive you into borderline insanity, which is hardly the fault of the bereaved.
The whole thing is just tragic for everyone involved. It’s so fucked up that one bad decision can take the lives of so many people, and destroy the lives of countless others. Christ, if only she had pulled over and waited for her brother… or not started drinking in the first place… what the hell was going through this woman’s head?
I can not believe all the people here posting that driving while high on pot is ok. I have smoked pot since 12 years old am in late 40’s now. I have been stupid enough to drive high and let me tell you no one should do it, its bull, it effects people different you are all stoned to one degree or another and it changes your perception of what you see, hear and focus on. I’m not one of those people who think we should all smoke pot but I do believe if you are going to do it, do it at home away from your children and don’t drive alone much less with your precious kids in the car. Thank god I never did my children are my life and I would never want to harm them so if diane schuler didn’t want to hurt people she should not have lit up or drank. The husband should apoligize to all and shut up and focus on taking care of who he has left. The last victim of his wife’s behavior there son.
Wanna know one of the reasons you’re in your late 40’s? Because you don’t get intoxicated and drive. It helps to refrain from putting your drunk or stoned ass behind the controls of a huge, combustible metal object that can do speeds upwards of 120mph if you want to live to your late 40’s.
I firmly believe Diane was suicidal on some level. I can’t understand any other reason for her behavior.
Never drive while intoxicated. Listen to that tiny, sane, sober voice when it tells you to put your pride away, stop, stay alive and let others live.
Please.
thank goodness the son survived, has he spoken about the ride prior to crash? I would question the mixing up of tissue samples if not for the undigested alcohol in her stomach. She would have had to be drinking steadily and smoking, something her son surely could have noted as typical or unusual behavior?
Scary statistic I read today in an insurance risk publication-yeah I have a boring day job-only 1 in 1,500 trips by drunk drivers results in a police-reported accident and subsequent court conviction…also alcohol related crashes account for around 40% of the 40,000 or so people killed each year on US highways. So imagine how many more Diane’s there are out there…
>I would question the mixing up of tissue samples
No way they mixed up the samples. How many other drunk stoned accident victims came into the Westchester morgue on a Sunday afternoon. How many samples could they have had lying around to mix up?
One of many things that bothers me is the fact that many people actually buy into the notion that Diane Schuler was sober prior to, and during that fateful drive, simply because she appeared lucid at McDonald’s.
Well, we have a town drunk whom everyone knows here and this guy can remember details and hold a pretty cogent conversation even though he is always, always drinking and is, in fact, homeless and sleeping on a park bench. And he drinks constantly.
So, in my opinion, it is possible that Diane “looked” sober but was already intoxicated.
I also do feel that Daniel Schuler is a weak, spineless, dishonest type who consciously minimizes how much his wife depended upon alcohol and drug use. This very fact makes me extremely angry and I have no respect for those who support him.
Barbara is a lawyer with zero morals.
as a recovering addict and drunk,{now over 2 yrs clean from hard shit,and goin on 60 days off booze} i can relate to the family of denial.im the black sheep of m family,in fact we dont even talk any more,as reputation means more than anything to these fools.its been bout 10 yrs since we have spoke a word to each other,but i AINT bitchin bout it,my mom was hooked on xanex but of course it was her.so shshshsh.lol.its been a long road but i love it just the way it is,thye can have the denial,ill take the honesty of recovery.
Hey bo, sounds like my family probs, I haven’t had a drink in nearly 10 years (my choice) also haven’t had a toke for about the same time, for me the drink was just social, as in not an everyday thing, but when I did I got paro, the dacca actually made me angry to the point where I would start fights just for the hell of it, so when I hit 30 and lost me knee cap I gave them both up. As for family I have come to learn that they are the ones missing out, and that makes me smile every single day :) if your on fb, let max know your email addy and we’ll chat there, actaully we should all be on fb so we can spread this site all over the world :)
come to think of it at 46 yrs old i have my own teethe still,and i DONT NEED VIAGRA,HELL YEA
when I was young, i swallowed a bunch of headache pills. At the emergency, I was accused of doing other drugs and taking other pills which they said they found in my system.The only thing I had was the cola I used to swallow the pills. Therefore they were seriously wrong. A pure lie. So I do believe that her husband may be right. I do bel The combination of something else in her system came out as alcohol or drugs. Don’t be so fast to point the finger. It happened to me. Can you imagine if it happened to you and you knew damn well that whatever they said they found is a lie and wrong. I sure know from experience. I was alive to speak up.
You didn’t interview enough people before writing this. How about me and my mother? People who spent every day with her and trust me would know if she was an alcoholic, as my grandfather is one. Let me ask you as I see you have voting on this, why should her family be in hell? What did 5 year old Brian do? I think you’ll be in hell for having a web site like this. Get a real job
You’re obviously just a kid, so I’ll go easy on you. I suggest you read the 15 page police report that was released months ago. Daniel and his sister-in-law did a good job of describing Diane the alcoholic and chronic marijuana user. And no matter if she is an alcoholic or not, there’s no question she was drunk and high the moment she killed 7 people and herself.
As for the rest of your comment, I attribute that to an immature mind that has failed to grasp adult concepts. Get back to me in 10 years and we’ll talk.
Who would want to waste their time interviewing more people who will lie for Diane?
I and many others saw her coming down the road the wrong way. It seemed very deliberate to me, intentional, full knowledge of what she was doing. She could have pulled over there was time. I don’t know why others don’t point out there where many drivers honking at her and pointing. She accelerated to 80 she was going much slower and able to pull over prior to deliberately crashing.
I drove that road a lot back then. For weeks afterwards there were a mile of skid marks all over the road from people swerving to the right out of her path. And of course the huge black burn mark and dead grass lasted a lot longer.
Well…this place never fails in surprising me man.. LOL.. Trusting you are all doing decently today. Enjoy the day, and always keep smiling. Then stab someone in the chest as you continue to smile. LOL.