the rix mix

Wrong-way crash driver was drunk, high
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — A mother was drinking vodka and smoking marijuana while driving a vanload of children home from a weekend camping trip that ended in disaster when she went the wrong way on a highway and crashed into an SUV, killing eight people, police said Tuesday.

Diane Schuler, who died along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces in her red minivan, had more than 10 drinks of alcohol in her system and a high level of the main ingredient in marijuana, authorities said.

The revelations from the 36-year-old Long Island woman's autopsy helped explain how the woman her family called "an accomplished working mother who always put her children before any other priorities" wound up driving the wrong way for nearly two miles on a suburban parkway before slamming into the SUV.

The July 26 crash on the Taconic State Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, also killed three men in the SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son, in her minivan, survived.

It was the only theory I had. Something didn't feel right about all the praise for the woman, & the puzzlement. If you're not lost, or a confused old person, or someone who can't read English, & there's no history of a medical condition that might cause disorientation, the most likely explanation is the driver must have been plastered. & soon we'll probably learn she was frequently high, that it was a problem, & her husband knew it was problem. Maybe during the week she didn't drink or toke until after supper. If she sits on her couch at home weekends & gets plastered, that's her business.