New York Local News

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (CBS) ― How could she?

That's what families of the victims want to know Wednesday morning as they prepare to meet with the Westchester County District Attorney after toxicology tests showed Diane Schuler was drunk and high as she drove the wrong-way on the Taconic State Parkway, leading to a crash that killed herself, four small children and three men.

Toxicology reports released Tuesday painted a disturbing and dark picture of 36-year-old Schuler, a woman once perceived as a devoted mother and victim of a terrible tragedy.

Police announced during an afternoon news conference that Schuler had a blood alcohol content of .19 and had six grams of alcohol in her stomach that had not been metabolized. The legal BAC limit in New York is .08.

"With that level of alcohol, she would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment, with her memory," said Betsy Spratt, Director of Toxicology for Westchester County. "Around that level of alcohol you'll also get what's called 'tunnel vision' where your perception is changed so you can't see peripherally all the time depending the tolerance that she has to alcohol."

Officials also said they recovered a broken 1.75 liter bottle of vodka in Schuler's vehicle.

The toxicology report also found that 113 nanograms per milliliter of THC, the main substance found in marijuana, was measured in her bloodstream. Spratt said that amount indicates Schuler had smoked marijuana within a period of 15 minutes to an hour before the crash.

"Sick. Sick. I just want an answer how someone could do it. I don't know how someone could do it," said Michael Bastardi Jr., whose father was killed in the accident.

Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter and three young nieces died in the July 26 crash on the Taconic Parkway in Westchester County after she slammed head-on into an SUV, about 35 miles northwest of New York City.

Three men in the SUV, 81-year-old Michael Bastardi, his 49-year-old son Guy, and 74-year-old friend Daniel Longo, also died.

The lone survivors were Schuler's 5-year-old son and the occupants of a third vehicle that was hit by the SUV, who sustained minor injuries.

Michael Bastardi's two daughters also expressed outrage to CBS 2 upon hearing the news. "Because of her, her daughter's dead. The other girls are dead. My father and my brother and Dan, they are all dead because she chose to do this and get in a car," said Margaret Nicotina.

Added her sister, Roseann Guzzo: "Before it was just an accident, but now I'm angry about it, because it could have been avoided. She had a choice to make and she made the wrong choice."

State police continued to piece together just what Schuler did on that fateful day, including how and when she got drunk and high.

Schuler and her family had been returning home to Long Island from a weekend camping trip in upstate Sullivan County -- a journey she had made numerous times in the past.

Her husband told investigators that he left for a fishing trip and his wife headed for home at about 9:30 that Sunday. He told police everything seemed fine when they left the campground.

Campground owner Ann Scott didn't think Schuler seemed drunk as she left.

"She was just fine, she was Diane, nothing more than Diane," she said.

Schuler, an executive with Cablevision, inexplicably wound up going south in the northbound lanes as motorists sought in vain to get her attention; six drivers called 911 before the collision. Police have not said how fast the vehicles were going at the time of the crash.

The stunning news could also explain why witnesses reported seeing Schuler driving aggressively and erratically long before the fatal crash, which state police reported on Monday.

State police, who have been retracing her route, said Monday that witnesses reported seeing her red Ford mini-van on both state Routes 17 and 87. They said the van was straddling two lanes, tailgating, flashing its headlights and beeping the horn.

Others saw the vehicle veering from one lane to another and one witness said it appeared as if she was attempting to pass him on the shoulder of the highway. Another witness said the van drove across a grass divider at the Ramapo service area on Route 87.

State police said while they can't be absolutely certain the driver was 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."

Schuler called her brother, Warren Hance -- the father of the three older girls who died -- at about 1:02 p.m., saying she was feeling ill and may have been disoriented. He told her to stay put and he would come to meet her, but she apparently disregarded those instructions.

Schuler's cellphone was found on the side of the highway, just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, on Route 87, where she made that final phone call.

State police also said Monday that they confirmed Schuler had stopped at a McDonald's on Route 17 in Liberty, not far from the campground where she had been staying. 

A preliminary autopsy had ruled out a stroke, aneurysm or heart attack.

The state police reconstruction unit is also sifting through the wreckage and reviewing other evidence, but the results of that probe are not expected until late September.

Irv Antolik, the attorney for the Bastardi family, wants police to look closely at Schuler's husband's decision to let his wife drive alone.

"I think justice has ramifications beyond the driver," Antolik said. "Because they cant believe this is something isolated. They're wondering whether she was a known alcoholic, whether she had an addiction to marijuana."

Schuler's family did apparently know about her drinking and drug use. One source told CBS 2 that her husband, Daniel, told police that his wife drank socially and smoked pot occasionally. Despite Tuesday's telling revelations, police say the investigation remains wide open.

CBS 2's Tony Aiello contributed to this report.



 

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