2009 Taconic State Parkway crash
Encyclopedia
The 2009 Taconic State Parkway crash was a traffic collision that occurred shortly after 1:30 PM on Sunday, July 26, 2009, on the Taconic State Parkway
near Briarcliff Manor, New York
. Eight people were killed when a minivan driven by 36-year-old Diane Schuler, after traveling 1.7 miles in the wrong direction on the parkway, collided head-on with an oncoming SUV. The deaths included Schuler, Schuler's daughter and three nieces, and the three passengers in the SUV. The crash was the worst fatal motor vehicle accident in Westchester County, New York
, since a 1934 bus accident in Ossining
claimed 20 lives.
The ensuing investigation into the crash's cause received nationwide attention. Although a toxicology
report stated that Schuler was heavily intoxicated with both alcohol
and marijuana at the time of the crash, Schuler's husband Daniel has consistently denied that she abused drugs or alcohol, and has made multiple media appearances to defend his wife and call for further investigation into other possible medical causes for her erratic driving.
. Riding with Schuler were her 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, and her brother's three daughters (ages 8, 7, and 5). Her husband Daniel Schuler left the campground at the same time in a separate vehicle. A co-owner of the campground later said that Diane Schuler appeared sober
when she departed.
On the way to West Babylon, New York
, Schuler stopped at a McDonald's
fast-food restaurant and a gas station in Liberty, New York
. While at the gas station, she attempted to buy over-the-counter
pain-relief medication, but the store did not sell any.
Schuler left Liberty just after 11 AM, traveling along Route 17/Interstate 86
and Interstate 87
, entering the Ramapo
service area, and crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge
, heading east. Witnesses later reported seeing a red minivan driving aggressively on Route 17/Interstate 86 and Interstate 87, including aggressively tailgating, flashing headlights, honking the horn, and straddling two lanes. At 11:37 AM, Schuler called Warren Hance, her brother and the father of the three nieces in Schuler's car. She reportedly told him that they were being delayed by traffic
. According to a police report, Schuler was seen at approximately 11:45 AM by the side of the road with her hands on her knees, as if vomiting; she was seen again in the same position a short time later, north of the Ramapo rest stop.
At about 1 PM, another call was made to Hance from Schuler's cell phone. During this call, one of Schuler's nieces reportedly told her father that Schuler was having trouble seeing and speaking clearly. Schuler then talked to Hance herself and said that she was disoriented and couldn't see clearly. Police believe that the car was stopped in a pull-off area beyond the Tappan Zee Bridge tollbooths for at least part of this call. Hance reportedly told Schuler to stay off the road while he came to meet them; follow-up calls from Hance to Schuler were not answered. A motorist later found Schuler's cell phone by the side of the road near the toll lanes of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
At 1:33 PM, two drivers called 911
after noticing Schuler's van edging onto the northbound exit ramp of the Taconic State Parkway near Briarcliff Manor, New York
. The end of the exit ramp (41.142734°N 73.814038°W), at the intersection with Pleasantville Road, is marked with two signs that read Do Not Enter and two signs that read One Way. The exit ramp itself is unmarked. Within the next minute, four more 911 calls were placed by motorists who reported that a car was traveling the wrong way down the parkway
.
Schuler's van traveled south for 1.7 miles in the parkway's northbound passing lane
before colliding head-on, at approximately 1:35 PM, with a 2004 Chevrolet TrailBlazer
, which then struck a 2002 Chevrolet Tracker. Schuler, her daughter, and two of her nieces were dead at the scene of the crash, along with the three men in the TrailBlazer, 81-year-old Michael Bastardi, his 49-year-old son Guy, and their friend, 74-year-old Dan Longo. The two occupants of the Tracker suffered only minor injuries. Schuler's severely injured third niece and Schuler's 5-year-old son Bryan were taken to area hospitals, where her niece died later that day. Bryan is the sole passenger of Schuler's vehicle to survive, suffering from broken bones and severe head trauma. He remained hospitalized before returning home in early October.
A toxicology report released on August 4 by Westchester County medical examiners found that Schuler had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19, with approximately six grams of alcohol in her stomach that had not yet been absorbed into her blood. The legal BAC limit is 0.08. The report also said that she had high levels of THC
, the active ingredient in marijuana, in her system and had smoked marijuana as recently as 15 minutes prior to the collision.
Diane Schuler's husband Daniel Schuler and his attorney Dominic Barbara consistently denied that she ever drank to excess or could have been drunk while driving that day. Daniel Schuler eventually admitted that he and his wife had been drinking during the weekend, but he denied that Diane had anything to drink in the day preceding the crash. The campground co-owner, who claimed to know the Schulers well and saw them off at approximately 9 AM that morning, said that Schuler appeared sober when she left; the gas station employee whom Schuler asked for Tylenol around 11 AM also said, "[I knew] for a fact [that] she wasn't drunk when she came into the station." According to Tom Ruskin, an investigator hired by Daniel Schuler, no McDonald's employees saw any signs of intoxication in Diane Schuler, when she engaged in extended conversation there while ordering food.
Ruskin told reporters in September that he had interviewed over fifty people who knew Diane, none of whom had ever seen her in a drunk state. Ruskin also pointed to autopsy results that showed an absence of organ damage often found in alcoholics, although an uninvolved medical examiner said such results do not rule out alcoholism. Schuler relatives have also disputed that Diane Schuler was known to drink heavily or irresponsibly.
Daniel Schuler told investigators that his wife smoked marijuana occasionally, and the family told People
magazine that she used it to relieve insomnia. Although Daniel Schuler is an officer in the Public Security Unit of the Nassau County Police Department, he was not required to report his wife's drug use because he is a civilian. In November, it was reported that Diane Schuler's sister-in-law had made a statement to police that Diane Schuler smoked marijuana on a regular basis.
Daniel Schuler and Barbara publicly attributed Diane Schuler's erratic driving to a medical issue, such as a stroke. According to Barbara, Diane Schuler suffered from diabetes though additional sources cite Schuler as having had gestational diabetes a temporary condition related to a prior pregnancy rather than a chronic condition; Barbara has also mentioned an abscess
that had persisted in her mouth for seven weeks before her death, and a lump in her leg, about which he said, "[It] might have been an embolism
." The results of an autopsy
conducted by a Westchester County medical examiner one day after the accident found that Schuler had not suffered a stroke, aneurysm
, or heart attack.
In September, New York's top forensic pathologist said that a hair test should have been done to determine Diane Schuler's drug history. Daniel Schuler and his lawyer announced plans to exhume the body to perform the hair test and other examinations; experts said that this was unlikely to produce any new information of value. Schuler also intended to re-test the fluid samples taken during the autopsy. The Westchester County medical examiner's office, which performed the autopsy, said that the degradation of the fluids over time was likely to result in lowered alcohol and THC readings; however, several toxicology experts said that the results should be similar to the previous test if the fluid samples had been properly stored. On November 7, Ruskin announced that the Schuler family had raised the money to retest Schuler's tissue samples and that the retesting would take place soon. In July 2010, it was reported that Daniel Schuler had accepted a $100,000 offer from a film company, Moxie Firecracker Films, to record Diane Schuler's exhumation for an HBO documentary. Daniel Schuler's lawyer said that the money would be placed in trust for Diane's son Bryan.
Daniel Schuler's persistence in disputing his wife's intoxication has been condemned by family members of the three TrailBlazer victims. When Schuler appeared on CNN
's Larry King Live
in September to demand more testing of his wife's remains, Longo's brother Joseph issued a statement saying in part, "I want Daniel Schuler to know that he keeps inflicting more pain on all concerned once again [by] going to the media to try [to] paint a picture of a perfect wife and mother."
Michael Bastardi's daughters appeared with their lawyer on The Today Show, on which they questioned Daniel Schuler's culpability in enabling
his wife's drug and alcohol use and called for him to undergo drug testing himself. "It makes me angry that he keeps denying it," Nicotina said. "Every time he does it, he brings it back for us. I just wish that he would just admit that she was drunk. Maybe if he knows what happened that morning, if they argued or anything, that would be the truth. He wants the truth. So do we." Their lawyer called Schuler's position totally outrageous, an insult to the intelligence of the American public, and a hoax. Ruskin said on The Oprah Winfrey Show
in October 2009 that Daniel Schuler had avoided media appearances since Larry King out of respect to the Bastardi family.
In June 2010, the New York State Police issued its final report on the accident following 11 months of analysis. The report upheld the previous toxicology findings that Diane Schuler was drunk and had high levels of marijuana in her system at the time of the accident.
In October 2009, DiFiore faced accusations that she had mishandled the Schuler case from Dan Schorr, a Republican challenger for her office of Westchester County district attorney, as well as from an attorney for the Bastardi family. Both parties said that DiFiore should have instigated a grand jury investigation into the incident. In response to Schorr's comments, DiFiore responded, "Is he suggesting that there was criminal evidence of a crime committed by someone and we wouldn't pursue it? That's just silly." DiFiore won re-election in November with 53 percent of the vote to Schorr's 36 percent. The Bastardi family said that if DiFiore did not convene a grand jury, they would seek support in the matter from the state attorney general and the governor.
Following a request from the Bastardi family that an administrator be appointed for Diane Schuler's estate so that a lawsuit could be filed, Daniel Schuler officially declined the role in November 2009, leaving it to a county-court judge to appoint a public administrator. On December 10, the Bastardi family filed suit against Diane Schuler and her brother, Warren Hance (father of Schuler's three deceased nieces), seeking unspecified damages for wanton, willful, and reckless conduct. According to the family's lawyers, they were required by state law to include Hance in the suit because he was the owner of the vehicle that Schuler was driving.
On July 26, 2011, the day after the premiere of HBO's documentary on the subject, There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane, and on the two year anniversary of the crash, Daniel Schuler announced that he is suing the State of New York
for not keeping the road safe and his brother-in-law Warren Hance for being the owner of the minivan.
was prompted by the Taconic Parkway crash to propose the Child Passenger Protection Act, which would make it a felony to drive while intoxicated if a passenger under the age of 16 is in a vehicle. The proposal became known as Leandra's Law
, following the October death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, a passenger in a vehicle whose driver was drunk. The Child Passenger Protection Act was signed into New York law on November 18, 2009.
broadcast an episode about drunk-driving moms, which focused heavily on Diane Schuler and the crash. The next month, Oprah Winfrey
devoted an episode of her show
to the crash, interviewing Schuler's private investigator Tom Ruskin via Skype
and responding incredulously to several of his claims.
The Law & Order
episode "Doped," which first aired in November 2009, centers on a crash extremely similar to the Taconic Parkway incident. The fictionalized version features a woman who speeds down the West Side Highway
in the wrong direction before crashing and killing herself, her daughter and her two nieces, and three men in another car. Bastardi relatives reacted with anger upon hearing that the NBC show would be basing an episode on the real-life tragedy.
There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011), directed by Liz Garbus
for HBO Documentaries, establishes a timeline of events prior to the accident. The documentary premiered July 25, 2011 on HBO.
Taconic State Parkway
The Taconic State Parkway , is a divided highway between Kensico Dam and Chatham, the longest parkway in the U.S. state of New York. It follows a generally northward route midway between the Hudson River and the Connecticut and Massachusetts state lines...
near Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor is a village in Westchester County in the state of New York. It is shared between the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining, and lies entirely within the ZIP code of 10510...
. Eight people were killed when a minivan driven by 36-year-old Diane Schuler, after traveling 1.7 miles in the wrong direction on the parkway, collided head-on with an oncoming SUV. The deaths included Schuler, Schuler's daughter and three nieces, and the three passengers in the SUV. The crash was the worst fatal motor vehicle accident in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
, since a 1934 bus accident in Ossining
Ossining (town), New York
Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
claimed 20 lives.
The ensuing investigation into the crash's cause received nationwide attention. Although a toxicology
Toxicology
Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
report stated that Schuler was heavily intoxicated with both alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and marijuana at the time of the crash, Schuler's husband Daniel has consistently denied that she abused drugs or alcohol, and has made multiple media appearances to defend his wife and call for further investigation into other possible medical causes for her erratic driving.
Day of accident
At approximately 9:30 AM on Sunday, July 26, 2009, 36-year-old Diane Schuler left the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, New York, in a red 2003 Ford WindstarFord Windstar
The Ford Windstar is a minivan that was produced and sold by the Ford Motor Company from the 1995 to 2003 model years. This front-wheel drive minivan was the second minivan designed by the company, serving as a replacement for the rear-wheel drive Aerostar minivan. The two were sold concurrently...
. Riding with Schuler were her 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, and her brother's three daughters (ages 8, 7, and 5). Her husband Daniel Schuler left the campground at the same time in a separate vehicle. A co-owner of the campground later said that Diane Schuler appeared sober
Sobriety
Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels, or effects from, alcohol or other drugs that alter ones mood or behaviors. According to WHO "Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms..." sobriety is continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use...
when she departed.
On the way to West Babylon, New York
West Babylon, New York
West Babylon is a census-designated place in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 43,452 at the 2000 census.-Geography:West Babylon is located at ....
, Schuler stopped at a McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
fast-food restaurant and a gas station in Liberty, New York
Liberty, New York
Liberty, New York relates to two locations in Sullivan County, New York, United States:*Liberty , New York*Liberty , New York...
. While at the gas station, she attempted to buy over-the-counter
Over-the-counter drug
Over-the-counter drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription...
pain-relief medication, but the store did not sell any.
Schuler left Liberty just after 11 AM, traveling along Route 17/Interstate 86
Interstate 86 (east)
Interstate 86 is an Interstate Highway that extends for through northwestern Pennsylvania and southern New York in the United States...
and Interstate 87
Interstate 87
Interstate 87 is a Interstate Highway located entirely within New York State in the United States of America. I-87 is the longest intrastate Interstate highway in the Interstate Highway System. Its southern end is at the Bronx approaches of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York City...
, entering the Ramapo
Ramapo, New York
Ramapo , formerly known as New Hempstead and then Hampstead, is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States located north of New Jersey; southeast of Orange County, New York; south of the Town of Haverstraw and west of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Orangetown...
service area, and crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge
Tappan Zee Bridge
The Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, usually referred to as Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge in New York over the Hudson River at one of its widest points; the Tappan Zee is named for an American Indian tribe from the area called "Tappan"; and zee being the Dutch word for "sea"....
, heading east. Witnesses later reported seeing a red minivan driving aggressively on Route 17/Interstate 86 and Interstate 87, including aggressively tailgating, flashing headlights, honking the horn, and straddling two lanes. At 11:37 AM, Schuler called Warren Hance, her brother and the father of the three nieces in Schuler's car. She reportedly told him that they were being delayed by traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
. According to a police report, Schuler was seen at approximately 11:45 AM by the side of the road with her hands on her knees, as if vomiting; she was seen again in the same position a short time later, north of the Ramapo rest stop.
At about 1 PM, another call was made to Hance from Schuler's cell phone. During this call, one of Schuler's nieces reportedly told her father that Schuler was having trouble seeing and speaking clearly. Schuler then talked to Hance herself and said that she was disoriented and couldn't see clearly. Police believe that the car was stopped in a pull-off area beyond the Tappan Zee Bridge tollbooths for at least part of this call. Hance reportedly told Schuler to stay off the road while he came to meet them; follow-up calls from Hance to Schuler were not answered. A motorist later found Schuler's cell phone by the side of the road near the toll lanes of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
At 1:33 PM, two drivers called 911
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
after noticing Schuler's van edging onto the northbound exit ramp of the Taconic State Parkway near Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor is a village in Westchester County in the state of New York. It is shared between the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining, and lies entirely within the ZIP code of 10510...
. The end of the exit ramp (41.142734°N 73.814038°W), at the intersection with Pleasantville Road, is marked with two signs that read Do Not Enter and two signs that read One Way. The exit ramp itself is unmarked. Within the next minute, four more 911 calls were placed by motorists who reported that a car was traveling the wrong way down the parkway
Parkway
The term parkway has several distinct principal meanings and numerous synonyms around the world, for either a type of landscaped area or a type of road.Type of landscaped area:...
.
Schuler's van traveled south for 1.7 miles in the parkway's northbound passing lane
Passing lane
A passing lane or overtaking lane is the lane on a multi-lane highway or motorway closest to the center of the road ....
before colliding head-on, at approximately 1:35 PM, with a 2004 Chevrolet TrailBlazer
Chevrolet TrailBlazer
The Chevrolet TrailBlazer is a mid-size sport utility vehicle produced by the Chevrolet division of American automaker General Motors.On November 10th, 2011, General Motors officially revealed a second generation of the vehicle to be sold worldwide...
, which then struck a 2002 Chevrolet Tracker. Schuler, her daughter, and two of her nieces were dead at the scene of the crash, along with the three men in the TrailBlazer, 81-year-old Michael Bastardi, his 49-year-old son Guy, and their friend, 74-year-old Dan Longo. The two occupants of the Tracker suffered only minor injuries. Schuler's severely injured third niece and Schuler's 5-year-old son Bryan were taken to area hospitals, where her niece died later that day. Bryan is the sole passenger of Schuler's vehicle to survive, suffering from broken bones and severe head trauma. He remained hospitalized before returning home in early October.
Contested intoxication levels
The investigation of the collision drew nationwide attention, as Diane Schuler's family battled the conclusion that Schuler was heavily intoxicated at the time of the crash.A toxicology report released on August 4 by Westchester County medical examiners found that Schuler had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19, with approximately six grams of alcohol in her stomach that had not yet been absorbed into her blood. The legal BAC limit is 0.08. The report also said that she had high levels of THC
THC
THC commonly refers to tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active chemical compound in Cannabis.THC may also refer to:* Tan Holdings Corporation...
, the active ingredient in marijuana, in her system and had smoked marijuana as recently as 15 minutes prior to the collision.
Diane Schuler's husband Daniel Schuler and his attorney Dominic Barbara consistently denied that she ever drank to excess or could have been drunk while driving that day. Daniel Schuler eventually admitted that he and his wife had been drinking during the weekend, but he denied that Diane had anything to drink in the day preceding the crash. The campground co-owner, who claimed to know the Schulers well and saw them off at approximately 9 AM that morning, said that Schuler appeared sober when she left; the gas station employee whom Schuler asked for Tylenol around 11 AM also said, "[I knew] for a fact [that] she wasn't drunk when she came into the station." According to Tom Ruskin, an investigator hired by Daniel Schuler, no McDonald's employees saw any signs of intoxication in Diane Schuler, when she engaged in extended conversation there while ordering food.
Ruskin told reporters in September that he had interviewed over fifty people who knew Diane, none of whom had ever seen her in a drunk state. Ruskin also pointed to autopsy results that showed an absence of organ damage often found in alcoholics, although an uninvolved medical examiner said such results do not rule out alcoholism. Schuler relatives have also disputed that Diane Schuler was known to drink heavily or irresponsibly.
Daniel Schuler told investigators that his wife smoked marijuana occasionally, and the family told People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine that she used it to relieve insomnia. Although Daniel Schuler is an officer in the Public Security Unit of the Nassau County Police Department, he was not required to report his wife's drug use because he is a civilian. In November, it was reported that Diane Schuler's sister-in-law had made a statement to police that Diane Schuler smoked marijuana on a regular basis.
Daniel Schuler and Barbara publicly attributed Diane Schuler's erratic driving to a medical issue, such as a stroke. According to Barbara, Diane Schuler suffered from diabetes though additional sources cite Schuler as having had gestational diabetes a temporary condition related to a prior pregnancy rather than a chronic condition; Barbara has also mentioned an abscess
Abscess
An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue in which the pus resides due to an infectious process or other foreign materials...
that had persisted in her mouth for seven weeks before her death, and a lump in her leg, about which he said, "[It] might have been an embolism
Embolism
In medicine, an embolism is the event of lodging of an embolus into a narrow capillary vessel of an arterial bed which causes a blockage in a distant part of the body.Embolization is...
." The results of an autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
conducted by a Westchester County medical examiner one day after the accident found that Schuler had not suffered a stroke, aneurysm
Aneurysm
An aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...
, or heart attack.
In September, New York's top forensic pathologist said that a hair test should have been done to determine Diane Schuler's drug history. Daniel Schuler and his lawyer announced plans to exhume the body to perform the hair test and other examinations; experts said that this was unlikely to produce any new information of value. Schuler also intended to re-test the fluid samples taken during the autopsy. The Westchester County medical examiner's office, which performed the autopsy, said that the degradation of the fluids over time was likely to result in lowered alcohol and THC readings; however, several toxicology experts said that the results should be similar to the previous test if the fluid samples had been properly stored. On November 7, Ruskin announced that the Schuler family had raised the money to retest Schuler's tissue samples and that the retesting would take place soon. In July 2010, it was reported that Daniel Schuler had accepted a $100,000 offer from a film company, Moxie Firecracker Films, to record Diane Schuler's exhumation for an HBO documentary. Daniel Schuler's lawyer said that the money would be placed in trust for Diane's son Bryan.
Daniel Schuler's persistence in disputing his wife's intoxication has been condemned by family members of the three TrailBlazer victims. When Schuler appeared on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
in September to demand more testing of his wife's remains, Longo's brother Joseph issued a statement saying in part, "I want Daniel Schuler to know that he keeps inflicting more pain on all concerned once again [by] going to the media to try [to] paint a picture of a perfect wife and mother."
Michael Bastardi's daughters appeared with their lawyer on The Today Show, on which they questioned Daniel Schuler's culpability in enabling
Enabling
Enabling is a term with a double meaning.As a positive term, it references patterns of interaction which allow individuals to develop and grow...
his wife's drug and alcohol use and called for him to undergo drug testing himself. "It makes me angry that he keeps denying it," Nicotina said. "Every time he does it, he brings it back for us. I just wish that he would just admit that she was drunk. Maybe if he knows what happened that morning, if they argued or anything, that would be the truth. He wants the truth. So do we." Their lawyer called Schuler's position totally outrageous, an insult to the intelligence of the American public, and a hoax. Ruskin said on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
in October 2009 that Daniel Schuler had avoided media appearances since Larry King out of respect to the Bastardi family.
In June 2010, the New York State Police issued its final report on the accident following 11 months of analysis. The report upheld the previous toxicology findings that Diane Schuler was drunk and had high levels of marijuana in her system at the time of the accident.
Legal action
According to a Westchester medical examiner, the crash was ruled a homicide soon after it occurred because the victims were killed because of Diane Schuler's driving, regardless of toxicology findings. On August 18, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore said that no charges would be filed in the incident, as Diane Schuler was the only person responsible. "Diane Schuler died in the crash and the charges died with her," DiFiore said.In October 2009, DiFiore faced accusations that she had mishandled the Schuler case from Dan Schorr, a Republican challenger for her office of Westchester County district attorney, as well as from an attorney for the Bastardi family. Both parties said that DiFiore should have instigated a grand jury investigation into the incident. In response to Schorr's comments, DiFiore responded, "Is he suggesting that there was criminal evidence of a crime committed by someone and we wouldn't pursue it? That's just silly." DiFiore won re-election in November with 53 percent of the vote to Schorr's 36 percent. The Bastardi family said that if DiFiore did not convene a grand jury, they would seek support in the matter from the state attorney general and the governor.
Following a request from the Bastardi family that an administrator be appointed for Diane Schuler's estate so that a lawsuit could be filed, Daniel Schuler officially declined the role in November 2009, leaving it to a county-court judge to appoint a public administrator. On December 10, the Bastardi family filed suit against Diane Schuler and her brother, Warren Hance (father of Schuler's three deceased nieces), seeking unspecified damages for wanton, willful, and reckless conduct. According to the family's lawyers, they were required by state law to include Hance in the suit because he was the owner of the vehicle that Schuler was driving.
On July 26, 2011, the day after the premiere of HBO's documentary on the subject, There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane, and on the two year anniversary of the crash, Daniel Schuler announced that he is suing the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for not keeping the road safe and his brother-in-law Warren Hance for being the owner of the minivan.
Child Passenger Protection Act
In August 2009, New York governor David PatersonDavid Paterson
David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting...
was prompted by the Taconic Parkway crash to propose the Child Passenger Protection Act, which would make it a felony to drive while intoxicated if a passenger under the age of 16 is in a vehicle. The proposal became known as Leandra's Law
Leandra's Law
Leandra's Law is a New York State law making it an automatic felony on the first offense to drive drunk with a person age 15 or younger inside the vehicle, and setting the blood alcohol content, or BAC, at 0.08. The bill was unanimously passed by the New York State Assembly and the New York State...
, following the October death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, a passenger in a vehicle whose driver was drunk. The Child Passenger Protection Act was signed into New York law on November 18, 2009.
Media
In September 2009, the talk show Dr. PhilDr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
broadcast an episode about drunk-driving moms, which focused heavily on Diane Schuler and the crash. The next month, Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
devoted an episode of her show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
to the crash, interviewing Schuler's private investigator Tom Ruskin via Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
and responding incredulously to several of his claims.
The Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
episode "Doped," which first aired in November 2009, centers on a crash extremely similar to the Taconic Parkway incident. The fictionalized version features a woman who speeds down the West Side Highway
West Side Highway
The West Side Highway is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A that runs from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern tip of Manhattan. It replaced the West Side Elevated Highway, built between 1929 and 1951, which was shut down in 1973 due to neglect and lack of...
in the wrong direction before crashing and killing herself, her daughter and her two nieces, and three men in another car. Bastardi relatives reacted with anger upon hearing that the NBC show would be basing an episode on the real-life tragedy.
There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011), directed by Liz Garbus
Liz Garbus
Liz Garbus is an award-winning documentary film director and producer. Her most recent film, Bobby Fischer Against the World, opened the Premiere Documentary Section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, reserved for master American documentary filmmakers...
for HBO Documentaries, establishes a timeline of events prior to the accident. The documentary premiered July 25, 2011 on HBO.
External links
- Anatomy of a Tragic Accident Overhead photos of the crash scene, and route map (The New York Times).
- Map of accident Road map of accident location (maps.google.com).
- Autopsy Report for Diane Schuler
- 911 calls by family and motorists