Perhaps one of the greatest, and most tragic mystery of times is the wrong-way accident on the Taconic Parkway in New York. It happened on July 26, 2009. The wrong way driver was one Diane Schuler whose autopsy showed she was both intoxicated and high on marijuana. She killed 8 people, including the 4 children in the minivan she was driving, 3 of whom were her brother’s little girls.
The Schulers went camping just about every summer weekend at Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, New York a beautiful spot in the Catskill Mountains. On this weekend, she had her 3 nieces with her and by all accounts, the kids had a great time playing, while the goal for Diane was to relax. Diane was a regular marijuana user, and she did smoke a joint that Saturday before the next tragic day. She and her husband also had a few drinks as they sat by the campfire that evening
Diane had been suffering from an abscessed tooth which was causing her a great deal of pain. She was also stressed by basically being a single parent while her husband worked nights, and the main breadwinner for the family. Pressure!
The story goes like this: After this weekend with her husband, her own 2 young children, and her brother’s 8, 7, and 5-year-old girls, Diane set off in her brother’s red minivan with all the kids and her husband drove away in his pickup with the family dog.
As evidently was the custom on the way home from camping, Diane stopped at McDonald’s with the kids for breakfast. After breakfast she emerged with a cup of orange juice. Shortly after, she pulled into a gas station and went in and asked for Tylenol. They had none. Back on the road, she is said to have driven crazily – honking, tailgating, straddling lanes and flashing her headlights.
By the time she and kids had crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge, (now the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge) Diane had called her brother to say they were being delayed by traffic. Also, witnesses recall seeing her bent over by the side of the road and appeared like she was vomiting. Shortly after, her oldest niece called her father and said words that were etched into the kinds of everyone who has ever followed this story: “Daddy, there’s something wrong with Aunt Diane,” who she said was slurring and having trouble seeing.
The catastrophe finally unfolded when Diane got on the Taconic State Parkway going the wrong way. After 1.7 miles, she slammed head on into a vehicle carrying 3 men, a father, his son, and a close friend, all of whom were killed in addition to herself, her daughter and her 3 nieces. Miraculously, her 5-year-old son survived.
The concrete cause of the accident became clear after toxicology tests were performed, and that was that Diane Schuler had a blood alcohol level of 0.19%, 6 grams of which was in her stomach and had not yet been absorbed into her bloodstream. Accident investigators found an open, half empty bottle of vodka in the van. Her blood also contained levels of marijuana.
So that’s all straightforward. But what’s not is the denials made by her husband that Diane had not had any alcohol and her condition must have been caused by her tooth pain or another physical condition. Then there was the sheer disbelief that a woman who was referred to as “Super Mom” would experience such a tragic meltdown. Or was it? Some people believe it was suicide. Others believe she had a black out of some kind.
The bottom line is, we will never know what prompted Diane Schuler to kill herself and 7 others.
So much has been written about this, and here is one very thoughtful and detailed article
There is also the fascinating look at the story in “There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane” documentary.
madmuser 
There’s a nut shell, and what I’m about to lay down, by far isn’t it, in a nut shell, but it sure comes together nicely for me, thirteen years after its initial broadcast. Something’s Wrong With ‘this entire family’ NOT just Good Ole speed racer herself, Di.
Ms. Hance, as she was listed on her bills-NOT Schuler, was not a super mom. Ms. Hance, was not ‘the FUN’loving aunt, we’re told she was-
She was mean-
My gut tells me, as soon as Speed Racer Di-Hance, ditched the cell, she crucified those kid, until the moment she slammed her piece a Shit self, into the Bastardi vehicle .
I bet dollars to 🍩 donuts, she screamed her ass off at those poor children, and in her last piece a shit moments on earth, she got to live out her abusive nature, because that’s what was hiding just beneath her drug addled self!…
Tooth abscess my ASS..
How bout ‘Monster in the Family’ just waiting to explode first chance she got!
All these dam family members idolizing this freak show of a scam artist..
A tooth abscess is too good for this POS fraud!! We couldn’t ever depend on a friggin abscess to take her out, before she took out the entire parkway!!
That’s the Nut Shell, containing all this Bitches demons….. it’s so full a her shit, you can’t put anymore in it!!
I hear you, Sharon. And like you said, there’s a whole lot more to this wretched story.
The arrogance to even attempt, to get out of you car, on the North bound side of the Tap-
Where the toll is, and everyone jockey-ing to get in a lane, OMG !!
The sheer RECKLESSNESS-
She was just out of her mind and had no working brain cells at all-
The height of deadly narcissistic behavior- and then some madmuser.. unbelievable!!
The arrogance to even attempt, to get out of you car, on the North bound side of the Tap-
Where the toll is, and everyone jockey-ing to get in a lane, OMG !!
The sheer RECKLESSNESS-
She was just out of her mind and had no working brain cells at all-
The height of deadly narcissistic behavior- and then some madmuser.. unbelievable!!
I think maybe the Aunt Left cell Phone bc Vomitting bc she was suffering from Sever Sepsis (organs can shut down ect.) & Alcohol IF you google What can Mimic Alcohol I read something about Carbs….in stomach…Why can’t Drs Investigate this?? THC don’t the make Etable w that many she got something outta Purse Confused it w FOOD Not Marijuana?? Hmm!? Just saying…
(From a Momma who Never has had THC & Has MAYBE 1 drink a Yr IF that! That’s ME!)
I agree with you, Erin. I don’t know the details, but I do know that carbs in the stomach can convert to alcohol.
She didn’t have any food in her stomach and I looked at the chemistry panel done during her autopsy- it was completely normal. That would be unusual in sepsis. She could have had an abscess, they didn’t do a dental X-ray at the time of her death. Normally, an abscess that severe, would cause swelling to the face and jaw, but pain- yes. It’s hard to understand why she didn’t just get the kids home and go to bed if she felt that bad. I personally believe that she was hungover, and combined with the dental pain, she was fighting a headache. She tried to treat both with vodka mixed with the OJ she bought at McDonalds’s. She didn’t eat anything and got a little too drunk and sick- the vomiting- she tried to the pot which she usually only smoked at night for the nausea. That’s when it all went wrong. She probably wasn’t used to mixing both. I think she simply blacked out. I don’t think she intended to harm herself or anyone else and that she made a series of terrible decisions. It sounds like she was someone who was used to doing everything herself and could never ask for help and she tried to do that this day with terrible consequences. In fact, I have no doubt that she ever had a moment where she could have fixed this. I think once she was in that state, it was too late and she was no longer able to make rational decisions- she was in a cycle of trying to out a band-aid on a hemorrhage- then, her brain took over for her around when she was driving through the toll plaza-
She was on autopilot long before she went in the wrong direction. I have seen too many people in blackout talk, they carry on conversations and perform tasks with expressionless eyes and have no memory of any of that later- most of what they do is senseless, but purposeful. The only time she could have stopped this chain of events would have never been to start pouring the vodka in the OJ to begin with. It’s not hard for me to believe that nobody knew she was an alcoholic, she may not even have been a long-term alcoholic, but she exhibited the signs of someone who was used to covering up her frailty so that she could keep going. She couldn’t be the mother who left her husband, right? I wonder about that part, the pressures and how much that cost everyone. In the end, was it worth it? This guy, was not even able to stand by the miracle child who survived and sued everyone. He probably didn’t know he drank because he wasn’t in any way supportive of her, “she bought cards”, that’s what he remembered. He is mad that she isn’t there to bring in the money and take care of him. It makes sense that she was trying to ease the pain of being unseen and taken advantage of. I wish she had found it in herself to walk away and started over instead of letting this be her legacy.
What a well-written and insightful comment, Betty. Based on what you say, Diane’s situation was the perfect storm and combination of disastrous events. The frustrating fact is that we will never know what the real truth was. Thanks for posting!
I do want to add that it is technically possible that she could have had Auto Brewery Syndrome, but the 1.75 L bottle of vodka in the car makes it harder to go in that direction. It is an under diagnosed condition. Without the bottle of vodka (and the THC)- we could argue that the OJ and coffee started the chemical reaction. It’s not impossible, just unlikely in her case. I wish it was, because it’s so incredibly tragic to think that she would do something that seems so out of character on that day. We also really don’t know her state of mind and what could have possibly triggered an emotional response in her along with a headache and other factors.
I apologize for the typos in my earlier post! This case has continued to haunt me all these years, I keep coming back to it. I think every time, we wish we had some more information, something that would make it make sense. Thank you for your wonderful blog.
No, alcohol is alcohol, period. There was six ounces of undigested vodka still in her stomach contents, she was a ‘secret drinker’ as suspected. Why she did it, we can only speculate, but the alcohol was consumed by her, and the pot was smoked by her.
Does wondering how this all went down make you as crazy as it does me? You are spot on — alcohol and pot were the main culprits, but why the erratic and aggressive driving, and then going wrong way???