http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_us/us_wrong_way_crash
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – A Long Island mother was very drunk, with an extra-large bottle of vodka in her car, and was smoking marijuana before she caused a wrong-way crash on a New York highway that killed her, her young daughter and six others, police said Tuesday.
Diane Schuler's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit at the time of the July 26 wreck and she still had undigested alcohol in her stomach, police said. Blood tests also showed she had smoked marijuana 15 minutes to an hour before the crash, said Betsy Spratt, chief toxicologist for the Westchester County Medical Examiner.
"With that level of alcohol ... she would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment with her memory," Spratt said. "You start to get what we call tunnel vision."
The fiery head-on crash on the Taconic Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, killed the 36-year-old mother, her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and three men in an SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son survived. Investigators said Schuler had been driving erratically on other suburban roads before hitting the Taconic Parkway.
State police have been investigating why the businesswoman, who was a regular visitor to an upstate New York campground, would have been driving toward her Long Island home the wrong way on a highway she reportedly had driven many times.
Toxicology reports found Schuler's blood-alcohol level was 0.19, more than twice the state's legal limit of 0.08, state police Maj. William Carey said. She also had six grams of undigested alcohol in her stomach, Carey said.
A broken, 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in the wrecked minivan, Carey said
Well that clears up that I guess.Hopefully people will learn from her very poor judgement and not repeat such actions.
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – A Long Island mother was very drunk, with an extra-large bottle of vodka in her car, and was smoking marijuana before she caused a wrong-way crash on a New York highway that killed her, her young daughter and six others, police said Tuesday.
Diane Schuler's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit at the time of the July 26 wreck and she still had undigested alcohol in her stomach, police said. Blood tests also showed she had smoked marijuana 15 minutes to an hour before the crash, said Betsy Spratt, chief toxicologist for the Westchester County Medical Examiner.
"With that level of alcohol ... she would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment with her memory," Spratt said. "You start to get what we call tunnel vision."
The fiery head-on crash on the Taconic Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, killed the 36-year-old mother, her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and three men in an SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son survived. Investigators said Schuler had been driving erratically on other suburban roads before hitting the Taconic Parkway.
State police have been investigating why the businesswoman, who was a regular visitor to an upstate New York campground, would have been driving toward her Long Island home the wrong way on a highway she reportedly had driven many times.
Toxicology reports found Schuler's blood-alcohol level was 0.19, more than twice the state's legal limit of 0.08, state police Maj. William Carey said. She also had six grams of undigested alcohol in her stomach, Carey said.
A broken, 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in the wrecked minivan, Carey said
Well that clears up that I guess.Hopefully people will learn from her very poor judgement and not repeat such actions.
