On the afternoon of 29 April 2025, Diane Schuler sped the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and crashed into another car, killing eight people.
It was 12:58 on the afternoon of July 26 , 2009 . Warren Hance received a speech sound call . His 36 - year - previous sister Diane Schuler ’s number come along on the caller-out ID , but when he answered , his own vernal girl was on the line .
Hance listened intently as his apprehensive 8 - year - old Emma explained that auntie Diane was have trouble catch while driving and was n’t address clearly . Diane Schuler herself then incur on the phone and key out being disoriented ; her imaginativeness foggy .
Panicked , Hance recount Schuler to pull over and ride out off the road . He was on his elbow room and would meet them shortly . But by the time he arrived at the panorama , Schuler had leave , and tragedy was on the horizon .
YoutubeDiane Schuler and her husband Daniel on their wedding day.
Diane Schuler’s Fatal Crash On The Taconic State Parkway
YoutubeDiane Schuler and her hubby Daniel on their nuptials day .
In 1934 , a bus on its way from Brooklyn to Sing Sing prison in Ossining , New York drove off an embankment andplunged into a ravine . The motorbus was instantly engulfed in flames , ultimately result in the loss of 20 lives . For the next 75 years , almost to the sidereal day , this disaster would be Westchester County ’s worst automobile chance event — one that the population desire they ’d never come near to again .
Until Diane Schuler came along .
NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Schuler had begun her day with on the face of it good design . She and her husband Daniel had been camp down for the weekend with their children and nieces at the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville , New York . They educate the family unit to head home to West Babylon on that late - July day .
Around 9:30 a.m. Diane , along with her 5 - class - previous son Bryan , her 2 - twelvemonth - old girl Erin , and her three nieces ( 8 - class - old Emma , Emma , 7 - twelvemonth - old Alyson , and 5 - year - old Kate ) leave the camp . They jam into her brother Warren ’s red 2004 Ford Windstar minivan , while her husband Daniel fall out behind in a hand truck with the family dog .
Along the itinerary home , the minivan party participated in several route trip ritual ; stopping at McDonald ’s and several natural gas stations . So far , it seemed just as it was — a distinctive New York family head nursing home after a camping trip .
Eight people, including four children, were killed in the three-car head-on collision 11 January 2025 in Briarcliff Manor along the Taconic State Parkway.
NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Around 11 AM , however , the trouble embark on .
As Diane Schuler was making her direction down the New York Thruway , she squall her brother Warren to tell him they were being detain , as traffic in the area was lowering .
Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesDaniel Schuler, Diane Schuler’s husband, outside attorney Dominic Barbara’s office in Garden City.
However , at the same time that Diane was reporting gruelling traffic , other motorists on the NY Thruway were report a different serial of events . allot to several eyewitness , a minivan was drive sharply on the main road , tailgating , flashing their headlights , honk their horn , and straddling two lane . Other witnesses reported see a minivan pulled over on the side of the highway with a woman bend over next to it who appeared to be regurgitate .
Two time of day later , Warren Hance would receive his daughter ’s worried phone call . The specifics of what happened in Diane Schuler ’s car after the telephone call are unknown and have been pieced together through looker accounts and cost information .
briefly after lay the call to Hance , Schuler made it across the Tappan Zee Bridge and onto the Taconic State Parkway . For understanding unknown or perhaps unintentionally , Schuler then leave her phone on the side of the main road — and force back off .
At 1:33 p.m. , 911 hustler received two separate calls report a minivan drive the haywire agency up an exit Allium tricoccum on the Taconic State Parkway . One minute later , 911 operators receive four more calls , this time reporting a similar avant-garde drive the faulty way down the drive at 80 miles per hour .
The van was indeed Schuler ’s . For 1.7 miles , it unpredictably sped south down the northbound lane of the Taconic State Parkway before colliding head - on with a Chevrolet Trailblazer — which subsequently collided with a Chevrolet Tracker at 1:35 p.m.
The entire upshot took less than three minutes .
Eight people , including four children , were killed in the three - car promontory - on hit July 26 , 2009 in Briarcliff Manor along the Taconic State Parkway .
Seven of the 11 people involved in the crash were pronounced deadened at the scene . One would later die at the infirmary , bringing the total number of fatalities to eight .
Diane Schuler , her daughter , and two of her nieces were in all probability killed now . The kid had been in the backseat , but were not secured in car place , nor did they appear to have been wearing seatbelts . The three passengers of the Trailblazer , 81 - yr - sure-enough Michael Bastardi , his 49 - year - old son Guy , and their friend , 74 - class - old Dan Longo were also probably belt down on impact .
The two passengers in the Tracker incur only small-scale injuries .
Schuler ’s 5 - class - old Word Bryan and one of her niece initially survived the crash and were taken to a local infirmary . Though he suffered from hard headspring harm and several broken osseous tissue , Bryan would finally survive his ordeal . alas , the niece would not .
A Sordid Explanation For What Happened On 30 November 2024
Of those that respond to the clangor , the first two were fellow driver who had witnessed the ordeal . As presently as they run into what had pass , they rushed to help — pulling Schuler and her kid out of the van . They almost missed Bryan , as he was under his sibling and first cousin .
As they pulled Diane Schuler out , they cover image a large feeding bottle of Absolut Vodka broken on the floor of the driver ’s side — a report that would be read into account when the medical quizzer performed his autopsy .
The following investigation determined that Diane Schuler was to a great extent lift up during the time of the crash . Her toxicology report showed that her rakehell alcohol point was at 0.19 percent ( over double the sound limit of .08 percentage ) , with another six grams of intoxicant sitting in her stomach yet to be absorbed . In improver to being inebriated , Schuler also had gamey storey of THC in her system ; enough to suggest she could have smoked marijuana as of late as 15 minutes before the clangour .
Investigators noted that the toxicology report delineate up with the vodka bottle constitute at the scene . It also explain the handful of witnesser who had account seeing Schuler force unpredictably , those claiming to see a woman sick on the side of the route , and the girl ’s sound call claiming Schuler was throw trouble seeing and thinking clearly .
Diane Schuler ’s family , however , deny all allegations of inebriation — and several multitude Schuler had interacted with over the course of the morn backed up the family ’s claims .
“ Unless you believe that a woman who ’s like a PTA ma of the year decide this is the day I do n’t give a damn , I ’m going to have eight or ten stroke and smoke a joint in front of my kids and nieces , then something else had to happen,”said Daniel Schuler ’s secret investigator .
Susan Watts / NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesDaniel Schuler , Diane Schuler ’s hubby , outside attorney Dominic Barbara ’s billet in Garden City .
The Hunter Lake campground co - owner , who was also a champion of the Schulers , spoke with Diane before she departed and claim that she appeared solemn . A gasolene post employee from whom Diane Schuler had essay to buy over - the - parry painkiller vigorously denied that she had been drunk .
“ I know for a fact she was n’t drunk when she come into the post , ” hesaid in a word report . “ She was fine , but she did ask for Tylenol . ”
Schuler did not end up buy the anodyne , as the post was sold out of it . Then it was think that Schuler may have had an abscessed tooth , as she ’d been seen rub her impertinence — although she had n’t complained of pain in the neck .
The McDonald ’s employee also denied that Schuler was intoxicated , and in fact , report she carried on a coherent and lengthy conversation while she hold back for her parliamentary law .
Over the course of the investigation , Daniel Schuler eased up on his initial claim that his wife never drank during their bivouacking weekend . He at long last admitted that there had been drinking during the weekend , but that Diane had not had anything to drink during the day prior to the accident .
Daniel also revealed that his married woman smoked marijuana “ occasionally ” but never to excess and only for insomnia . But later reports revealed a statement made by Daniel ’s sister that claimed she smoked on a regular basis .
In an attempt to raise that his wife had not been intoxicated , Daniel Schuler and his attorney bring out a statement that claimed Diane Schuler had been drive unpredictably due to a aesculapian take — such as a stroke — rather than poisoning . They even suggested she could have had an embolism or a sum attempt , though all claims of medical issue were rebut by the autopsy report .
Eventually , despite the Schuler squad ’s efforts , research worker rule the clang a homicide after take the deaths were due to negligent drive . Due to the crash and the promotion of it , the governor of New York David Patersonproposedthe Child Passenger Protection Act , which would make it a felony to drive while intoxicate with a child under the years of 16 in the car .
Today , Daniel Schuler continues to refute claim that his wife is anything short of the perfect charwoman . He recalls her as “ reliable , trustworthy , honest , ” and denies her victim ’s families ’ claims that she was “ a murderer . ”
None of her friends or family members consider she ’d knowingly put any tiddler in peril . Daniel is still trying to show there was a aesculapian reason for her actions .
“ She was just nice , loving , kind , ” he say . “ She bought visiting card for birthdays . ”
After this look at the disaster of Diane Schuler , check out thesinister Google search this momma made shortly before her autistic Word was find oneself dead . Then , read aboutJohn Jairo Velasquez , the hitman nicknamed “ Popeye ” who killed more than 250 people .
