Diane Schuler, the perfect mom for 2 children caused one of the most fatal accidents in Westchester County since 1934. There are some bizarre unansweredquestions around this whole case and different people have different opinions.
Diane, her husband, her two children and 3 nieces have been camping at the Hunter Lake campground in Parksville, New York. On July 26th 2009 around 9.30 they left the campsite; Diane with children in her 2003 red Ford minivan and her husband Daniel in their pickup truck with the family dog. On their way home to West Babylon minivan made several stops, first at a McDonald's and several gas stations. However at 11.37am, Diane called her brother to tell him that they are being delayed due to the traffic. While she was calling her brother, several other calls were being made by other drivers who were on the highway. They reported a minivan driving recklessly, flashing headlights, honking and tailgating. Other witnesses who reported seeing a woman bending over vomiting with a red minivan pulled over to the side of the highway around 11.45am .A1 12.58pm her brother receives another call and this time it is from his daughter, 8 years old Emma. She stated that Aunt Diane is not okay and she can't see or speak clearly. Diane then took the phone and confirmed it. Her brother, Hance asked her to pull over as he will come and meet them. He called her several times on his way but she did not answer. Her phone was later found on the highway. At 1.30pm a series of 911 calls were coming in about a minivan entering towards Taconic State Parkway's exit ramp. There were signs " Do not enter", "One way", but the driver of the minivan didn't seem to care. She entered the highway and was driving around 121-137km/h in the wrong direction. After driving 2.7kms she faced a head-on collision with a 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer killing eight people..74 years old Dan Longo, 81 years old Micheal Bastardi and his 49 years old son Guy were killed instantly alongside his daughter and two of his nieces. Diane's other niece died later in that day after being hospitalised.
Two people who witnessed the crash pulled Diane out of the wreckage and they also noticed a giant broken bottle of Absolute Vodka. They tried to pull the kids out but they were already dead and none of the kids were wearing seat belts. The only survivor was Diane's son, Bryan.
The crash drew everybody's attention as Diane Schuler was considered a perfect PTA mom. Even though they found a bottle of Vodka in the vehicle nobody observed that she was drunk. Her co campers said the morning she drove away she was sober. The employees at the Mcdonalds' also did not witness anything unusual with her. and she carried on a coherent and a lengthy conversation while she was waiting for her order. The last footage of her is that when she went to the gas station and she was trying to buy painkillers (Tylenol). The gas son employee said in a news report " I know for a fact she wasn't drunk when she came into the station". Diane however couldn't buy Tylenol as they were sold out.
However on August 4th medical examiners released her toxicology report which stated that she had three times the legal blood alcohol limit in her system when the crash happened. They also found out that Diane had high THC levels (marijuana). Four days after the report was released Daniel Schuler held a press conference denying her use of drugs or drinking. He consistently denied his wife's substance abuse. He admitted she occasionally smoked marijuana for her insomnia but she never did drugs or alcohol around her children or at the camp. His consistent denial caused issues to the family of those who killed in the TrailBlazer and it was followed by several legal battles. Diane's brother who lost all of his daughters also filed a lawsuit against Daniel Schuler. There are several theories to the crash as this is believed out of character to suddenly go from a perfect caring mom to a killer alcoholic but a toxicology report never lies. For some unknown reason she decided to get high and drive recklessly. Her husband to this date denies her behaviour.
As a result of this crash New York Governor David Patterson proposed a law making it a felony to drive with underaged passengers while intoxicated and the law was passed few months later.
Jackie Hance, the mother who faced every parents worst nightmare went through an unimaginable pain. They were grieving for years and finally there was a ray of hope. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Kasey Rose in October 2011. She also wrote a book about her experience, I'll see you again by Jackie Hance. I for sure am gonna read that book.
So what do you think happened to her? Why did she turned 180 degrees and decided to go on this murderous journey instead of peacefully going home?
Comments
Post a Comment