Many theories abound as to whether Schuler deliberately caused the crash that killed her family members. I think it really revealed the depths of the family's state of denial, and what lengths her husband and sister-in-law were willing go to "prove" that it was a medical issue, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. it could have happened) but this is quite near to the psychological make-up of someone who might be prone to snapping like this. Revisiting the accident that occurred on July 26, 2009, when Diane Schuler drove the wrong way on New York's Taconic State Parkway and collided with . Investigators said Diane Schuler drove against traffic and struck Bastardi's car. .14 - .19 The "good feelings" of euphoria begin to give way to some negative feelings such as anxiety and restlessness. She got a phone call from her brother and spoke with to him for two minutes before leaving her phone and driving off. And of course, there was the fact that Diane's mother had abandoned Diane and her brothers when Diane was only nine, leaving Diane to become the "woman of the house" to her siblings. That child knew she was in trouble. It did show a blood alcohol level of 0.19 and high levels of thc from smoking weed up to 15 minutes before she died. When you are on Ambien you could eat a whole meal and drink a bottle of booze and not even know it. I don't think it's clear cut at all. Schuler, a manager in Cablevisions accounting department, would suck down screwdrivers at a Long Island saloon, where she was a regular the past few years and usually came by herself, her pal said, adding: I wouldnt say she was an alcoholic, but she liked her drinks. I can understand her being consumed with grief but it feels like she's holding back and it makes it more tragic. The story of Diane Schuler and the horrifying collision she caused is a series of mysteries that probably cant be solved but that could, from some angles, be seen as fairly easy to explain. The World Is Ending: Amazon Rainforest, dying? Please click here to register for free. She was the breadwinner in the family and had to take full responsibility for the kids. Reportedly, she had her hands firmly on the steering wheel at "ten and two" while she stared straight ahead. At least his sleazy lawyer's been disbarred and pretty much lost everything. It had to be murder-suicide. Leaving the phone behind on the side of the road and then getting in the minivan with the kids for the final time looks pretty bad. Schuler, one of her children and three of her young nieces in the minivan were killed, as were three people in the northbound car she hit. I mean would that have been so hard? or was she doing it right in front of them? I'm glad the Bastardis sued and got some compensation for the loss of their loved ones. Take a look at She overdid it and.the rest is history. Verified Audience. If she WASNT such a heavy drinker that 190 made her so impaired Why did she take such an outrageous risk by drinking and driving with kids in the car? Im just wondering at what point exactly she started what seems to have been a binge? She decided she'd have a few belts and a few smokes; no doubt she'd done something like this before and thought she could handle it., that is, driving while intoxicated. Meanwhile, her brothers did make peace with the mom. Since this aired I have read comments saying that it could have been that Diane blacked out after taking Ambien. Oh, I'm sure she was bothered; bothered by being left holding the bag while her dipshit husband went on his merry way. Also: none of the kids were in car seats or had seat belts on and all of them were just crammed next to each other on the seats in the backseat. The child calls her parents and is crying because Diane is screaming at the kids to shut the hell up. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. 'SOMETHING WRONG WITH AUNT DIANE' By Andrea Peyser August 7, 2009 6:30am IN THE minutes before Diane Schuler drunkenly smashed her vehicle while traveling in the wrong direction on the. Hard to find anything "interesting" about that. Michael Bastardi Jr., who wrote a book about the experience, remains convinced that the Schuler and Hance families can provide some details to shed light on the events of that day. Spoiler.. Columbia School of Journalism. -, Press J to jump to the feed. I just dont get how she goes from camping every weekend and being a PTA mom who doesnt let the kids out of her sighta great mom (per a neighbor) to purposely terrifying and murdering all the kids, herself, and a handful of drivers. Ms. Garbus offered to move forward the fitful investigation that Mr. Schuler and Jay Schuler have sponsored in their effort to vindicate Diane, or at least to explain her behavior. The simple truth is that she guzzled vodka and smoked pot, got blotto and killed eight people, including herself. I have never before witnessed or heard of an alcoholic get so messed up that they lose control or cohesion to this extent. But I lean towards intentional act. of undigested alcohol still in her stomach (even after pulling over to vomit twice)so we know she did it. There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane Reviews. Something happened on the trip that made her snap. Yet Schuler offered himself up, grim-faced, to the press, insisting his wife had an occasional glass of wine and tossed the rest of the bottle away. It seemed to want to find a medical reason to account for Diana Schuler's abominable behavior. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. She was pissed and angry, and wanted to ease her tension by drinking and smoking pot. Also: early on, she called her sister-in-law to say that there was a lot of traffic and that was delaying her getting back with her nieces. No telling what he said/did that morning to set things in motion. He hopes they will eventually be willing to sit down. (Name will only be used to verify billing.). You said it best. The autopsy showed no.traces of Ambien in her system. She drank to work up the courage to do it. R21 does make sense. That's just another lame, totally unproven excuse for Shuler's behavior. Emma took the phone to tell her dad that she had a great time camping upstate with the Schulers. It would be very interesting to know the content of the phone conversation Aunt Diane had with her brother before the accident. Kind of like a perfect storm. He knows she's drunk and gets pissed and tells her to stay put because he's on his way to get his kids. She also had a lot of undigested alcohol in her stomach + had been smoking weed. [quote] I'm a parent, and can understand how a person could drive in that condition. Maybe she also doesn't know where her husband is and wants to get home to see if he's there. A scene from the film on the crash caused by Diane Schuler that killed her and seven others in July 2009. All in all, I find this case fascinating but so frustrating because we will never actually know for sure. IMO, the most logical explanation is that she was hungover and stopped at McDonalds to get OJ for the vodka we know was in the car, to take the edge off her hangover. It would make more sense if she had wanted to end it all and take the children with her to have them unsecured at that point. Her blood alcohol level was 0.19, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. She was angry at her mother for leaving her family. This was a mentally unstable woman who did a great job of hiding it, had problems in her marriage, had reached a tipping point, and wanted to keep "control" by making sure her children didn't grow up without her. The World is Ending: Donating without dignity, Senior skip day: rest day for students, disruptor for teachers, The Student News Site of Thomas S. Wootton High School, Your email address will not be published. Just as eyewitnesses reported Schuler seemed to have her faculties at the time of the crash, two witnesses from the campgrounds later maintained there was nothing out of the ordinary when Schuler and the family left. R5, she didn't take Ambien, she drank a quart of vodka and smoked weed. After reading in the NY Daily News that Aunt Diane *left her cell phone on the side of the road* after that last mysterious phone call with the brother (purposely leaving it behindthe only item she did that with) and suddenly driving pin straight 80-85mph down the wrong side of the freeway (after she had weaved and tailgated and driven erratically before for 60 miles and the the brother said he was on his way and for her to stay put after the last phone call) I definitely think she did it on purpose. In subsequent calls, it was clear that something was terribly wrong. [quote]The McDonalds employees and the camp ground owner also swear that Diane wasnt drunk when they saw and interacted with them that morning. It messed her up. Daniel Schuler and his in-laws, Warren and Jackie Hance, later sued each other over the crash. She's concentrating on just driving straight and staying in one lane. I mean, ALL of that made sense! She also said something to her brother during that last phone call that was probably very telling about her motives. I've said this from the beginning & just felt like a big ol' pessimist who has no faith in people, lol. Part of this is about access: some key figures, like Warren and Jackie Hance, Dianes brother and sister-in-law, whose three daughters died in the crash, declined to be interviewed. I think it started to sink in to Jay Schuler toward the end, when the investigator hired by Dominic Barbara (sic?) And then, for whatever reason, Diane decided to drop her phone and sped off to die. To be fair - all alcoholics/addicts are functional until the day they're not. The Laurie Show case from the 90's. She was brutally murdered by the pregnant girlfriend of a boy who sexually assaulted her. Any history of mental illness? Liz Garbus, an Oscar and Emmy nominee for The Farm: Angola, USA, takes a hard look at those questions in a new documentary, Theres Something Wrong With Aunt Diane. 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