NY - 8 Die in Crash on Taconic State Parkway #3

capoly

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Taconic Crash: Diane Schuler's Final Hours

Tom Ruskin, the president of CMP Group Investigations, has been hard at work trying to piece together the final moments of the crash that has horrified the nation and left Schuler's loved ones baffled.
"We've got multiple investigators working hundreds of hours trying to retrace her steps," he said. "Toll receipts, cell phone records, credit card receipts."
The timeline began at 9:30 a.m. at a campground in upstate New York. Ruskin says shortly after Schuler left for home, appearing sober, she stopped at McDonald's.

In surveillance video captured shortly after at a gas station, Schuler appeared sober and in control, Ruskin says.
"You see Diane Schuler filling up the minivan, and then you very clearly see her entering the convenience store," he says. "We now know that she was attempting to purchase Tylenol or Advil gel caps. Did she appear normal? Absolutely."

At 11:37 a.m., Schuler's niece Emma, 8, called her father, Warren Hance, Schuler's brother, to tell him they were running late. At 12:08 p.m. the Hances called back and had what has been described as a "normal" conversation with Schuler. But over the next 48 minutes, something went terribly wrong.
At 12:56 p.m., Emma called her father back in a panic.
"What did Emma say to her dad?" Ruskin said. "She's expressing ... something is wrong with Diane. Diane is incoherent, she is confused and they are lost."
The call dropped out and Schuler's cell phone was later found on top of a wall by a bridge near the highway. "It means 99.9 percent sure she got out of the car," private investigator Tom Ruskin later said.
Schuler's brother called the police to ask them to issue an Amber alert. But by then, it was likely too late, according to Ruskin.



http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8350259

ETA Don't know why there are links in article but can't seem to remove them.

So wish someone stopped to help Emma.
 
Please continue here. Is there anything that you would like in this first post? Let me know.

Salem

Link to Thread 1: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87087&page=47

Photos from Steve2010 (hope this works)

Here is an overview of Hunter Lake Campground. State Route 17 is at the lower left corner

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...unter-Lake.jpg

Here is a google earth image of the route I believe they took to arrive in Liberty

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...to-Liberty.jpg

Here is a google earth image of the Sunoco and the McDonalds in Liberty that I think they stopped at.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...ald-Sunoco.jpg

This is a google earth image of the Ramapo Service Area

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20.../ds-Ramapo.jpg

Here is a google earth image of the first portion of their trip - which shows from the campground to the TZ Bridge

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s-route-17.jpg

Here is a google earth image of the last portion of their trip. Reminder, this route has not been confirmed

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...z-overview.jpg

This is a google earth image of the area where the pullover is after the toll-booths.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...z-bridge-1.jpg

This is a google earth image of where she made a left turn onto an OFF ramp to end up southbound on the northbound side of the Taconic Parkway

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s-off-ramp.jpg
 
I found some news articles about the accident. LE found a bottle of Absolut vodka in the van, toxicology reports show she consumed 10oz DURING the 90 mile drive.

Toxicology tests did not show what she drank, but a jumbo 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in the wreckage of her Ford Windstar minivan.

She consumed at least 10 ounces of liquor during the reckless 90-mile drive from a campground in Sullivan County to Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, police said.

She smoked pot within an hour of driving the wrong way on the Taconic heading home to Long Island, police said.

The revelations brought outrage from the family of the men killed in the SUV — but silence from Schuler’s relatives.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...ic_killing_8_was_drunk_on_.html#ixzz0Oe2T7fPX

Now I understand better... could not have been drinking something she didn't know contained alcohol. While I feel sad for her husband/family I can understand why the mens' families are angry. For Mr. Schuler to continue denying she drank would be insulting. The girls didn't have a bottle of Abolut!! Terrible for all families.

Police could not say if Schuler got wasted while driving or stopped along the way. It was unclear if she was drinking before she got behind the wheel to drive the children home from camping.

Her husband, Daniel Schuler, told cops that his wife was fine when they left about 9:30 a.m. He drove one car straight home to West Babylon, L.I., while she took the kids to McDonald's.

Ann Scott, 77, who owns the campsite the family visited for three years, saw Schuler off.

"I got pretty close to her and waved goodbye,”" she said. "If she had alcohol in her breath, I would have smelled it."

So she wasn't sitting around drinking with other people either. I didn't know all this...
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/08/07/2009-08-07_daughter_of_.html

Daughter of man killed in Taconic crash doubts family's claims that mom driving wasn't a drinker

BY Matthew Lysiak and Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, August 8th 2009, 1:28 AM


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/08/07/2009-08-07_daughter_of_.html#ixzz0OfaMJEPI


amd_bastardi.jpg
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...niel_schuler_likely_wont_face_criminal_c.html

The husband of Taconic death driver Diane Schuler is off the hook.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that no charges will be filed in connection with the wrong-way crash that killed eight people because the only person to blame is dead.
"Diane Schuler died in the crash and the charges died with her," Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/08/18/2009-08-18_taconic_driver_diane_schulers_husband_daniel_schuler_likely_wont_face_criminal_c.html#ixzz0OfapjZPm
 
Thank you, Harmony2 and Salem, for the new thread. I know it takes a lot of work to collect all those links.

You guys take very good care of us!
 
In response to MyBelle, post 1989 on the previous thread: possibly the alcohol, once mixed with the Ambien, is what caused the "blackout"? Purely speculation, I still don't know if she had ambien in her system. I do know Ambien is intentionally abused and mixed with alcohol to enhance the effects of both.
 
In response to MyBelle, post 1989 on the previous thread: possibly the alcohol, once mixed with the Ambien, is what caused the "blackout"? Purely speculation, I still don't know if she had ambien in her system. I do know Ambien is intentionally abused and mixed with alcohol to enhance the effects of both.

You may be spot on for all I know. My mom was given Ambien after a hip replacement and it landed her on the floor of her hospital room trying to get to the bathroom. At this point, I think everybody has a horror story about Ambien. We'll never know what the details of this case might be but it's not a stretch to believe it might include a sad version of the horror story we've also experienced.

JMO
 
I don't mean to pick at your post, MyBelle, but I want to correct the impression that EVERYONE has odd reactions to Ambien. I used it for years (with and without alcohol); I neither suffered ill effects nor engaged in odd behavior. (I share a bed with my husband. He would know if I were up and wandering around the house.)

By the same token, I don't mean this as an argument FOR Ambien. And if DS smoked pot, drank to a point twice the legal intoxication level AND took an Ambien, I can hardly imagine the impact!
 
I don't mean to pick at your post, MyBelle, but I want to correct the impression that EVERYONE has odd reactions to Ambien. I used it for years (with and without alcohol); I neither suffered ill effects nor engaged in odd behavior. (I share a bed with my husband. He would know if I were up and wandering around the house.)

By the same token, I don't mean this as an argument FOR Ambien. And if DS smoked pot, drank to a point twice the legal intoxication level AND took an Ambien, I can hardly imagine the impact!

Yes, I think the results pretty much tell the story of combining multiple drugs. In my mom's case, she had just had hip replacement surgery and was also on pain pills.

JMO
 
Diane Schuler's autopsy and toxicology reports can viewed at the link below:

http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/schuler, diane_report.pdf

The tox report showed only the presence of alcohol and THC (marijuana). No other drugs were found in her system.

The copy I downloaded from your link is of such poor quality on the findings and lab results, I could not tell how much ethanol per quantity of urine, blood or anything else. All I know is she drank that day, got in a car with multiple children and all but one person in the car died. No mystery here.
 
The copy I downloaded from your link is of such poor quality on the findings and lab results, I could not tell how much ethanol per quantity of urine, blood or anything else. All I know is she drank that day, got in a car with multiple children and all but one person in the car died. No mystery here.

I disagree that there is no mystery. This woman had never appeared in public completely drunk. Something caused her to behave irrationally and abnormally. By all accounts she was a good mother who loved her children. I have read that she did have a script for ambien. Ambien would make you do things in a dreamlike state especially including drinking alcohol and eating. Alcohol just exacerbates the ambien. My question is did the tox screen check for the metabolites of ambien. Until that is answered I don't believe it can be ruled out. I am amazed how many people on this thread are so ready to crucify this woman based on one horrible event that was totally uncharacteristic of her by all accounts
 
The copy I downloaded from your link is of such poor quality on the findings and lab results, I could not tell how much ethanol per quantity of urine, blood or anything else. All I know is she drank that day, got in a car with multiple children and all but one person in the car died. No mystery here.

Sorry to hear that, my copy is very clear. Would you like for me to transcribe it for you?

It tested her blood, brain, urine, vitreous humor and gastric contents for various substances. Ethanol (alcohol) was found in all with a reading of 0.19 g/100ml in her blood. In urine it was 0.25, vitreous humor 0.23, brain 0.17 and her gastric contents showed 6 g per 350 ml of undigested alcohol.

THC (marijuana), THC-COOH and 11-OH-THC (last two are THC metabolites) were also found in her blood and urine. The THC content, 5.6 ng/ML were high enough to indicate she had used marijuana within 15 minutes of the accident.

Testing was done using gas chromatography. I'm not a scientist, so here's a link that explains how it works:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography

Hope this helps!
 
Like so many other people in the US, this case just amazed and astounded me. I wondered about what the husband said, declaring that she never drank, then I realized that maybe he truly did NOT know how much she drank.

For this entire time I keep going back to her trying to buy the Advil or Tylenol. In reading that my guess at the time was many people thought she was having a major headache and then they lept to the idea that she may have been having a stroke.

But after I have thought about this, I've always wondered if she didn't have one or two drinks to begin with and then suffered a diabetic reaction of hypoglycemia due to the alcohol.

As her blood glucose plummeted she had a two fold effect, she was having a major headache due to the low glucose, she became mentally impaired due to both the low glucose and the alcohol and this easily could have lead her to drink more than she ever intended or realized. The more she drank the further her blood sugar went down.

I see the results of the blood screens for alcohol and marijuana but I don't see a blood glucose so far. I will go look now.

Either way, by all accounts this was truly a tragic accident and I highly, highly doubt she did this on purpose.
 
For those of you with a weak stomach, I would not read the autopsy report. It's terrible.

Perhaps there is more to that report? Or is it likely that her blood glucose was not checked? I would think that would be standard.
 
Am thinking of the doc and the autopsy and labs that were done-----I think that once the presence of so much alcohol and pot were found perhaps it was then determined that those substances caused Diane to have the accident and nothing further was pursued........and yes---read the autopsy--took it in small doses!!!!
 

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