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Driver In Fatal Taconic Crash Vomited Twice Before Collision
By
Ben Muessig
Published Nov 9, 2009
Modified Nov 9, 2009
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By
Ben Muessig
Published Nov 9, 2009
Modified Nov 9, 2009
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The woman who killed eight people, including herself, when she drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway vomited twice on the side of the road before the collision. Police reports obtained by the Post reveal that just under two hours before the fatal crash — witnesses "noticed an adult female outside of the vehicle with brown hair, wearing blue, knee-length shorts, bent over with her hands on her knees, as if throwing up."
Witnesses later spotted a red minivan, like Diane Schuler's, "zigzagging in and out of traffic," before they encountered the "same van pulled over" and the woman "again with her hands on her knees." Despite her husband's claims that Schuler wasn't a heavy drinker or drug user, an autopsy revealed that her blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit and that she had recently smoked marijuana. Her sister-in-law also testified that she drank and smoked pot regularly.
Though forensic experts couldn't say whether Schuler kept drinking after vomiting, an attorney for the victims' families said the news "would indicate she had a lot more alcohol than we know about."
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