A 36-year-old soccer mom who drove the wrong way on Taconic State Parkway in New York was drunk and stoned on a Sunday afternoon when she crashed into an SUV, killing herself, four children in her minivan, and three men in the SUV she crashed into.
Toxicology reports on Diane Schuler show she drank at least 10 vokda drinks and smoked marijuana right before climbing into the minivan and turning the wrong way onto the multi-lane road.
Schuler had a blood-alcohol content of .19 percent — more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, authorities said. She also had 6 grams of undigested booze in her stomach, they said.
In addition, the West Babylon resident had "a high number" — 113 nanograms per milliliter — of THC, the active component of marijuana, in her bloodstream, said Betsy Spratt, chief toxicologist with the Westchester DA’s Office.
That indicated Schuler smoked pot 15 minutes to one hour before the crash, Spratt said.
With the alcohol alone, Schuler, 36, "would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment, with her memory," Spratt said. "Around that level of alcohol, you also start to get tunnel vision."
When combined with marijuana, "those effects are intensified," she said.
Schuler’s husband, Nassau County public-safety officer Daniel Schuler, has told police that his wife occasionally smoked pot and was a social drinker, WCBS-TV reported.
As a cynical, hard-boiled newspaperman, I don’t shock easily but this story shook me to the core. The wife of a public safety officer smoked pot with his knowledge and had enough of a drinking problem to get wasted before driving off with children in her van and he calls her a "social drinker?"
I lost loved ones when a trucker, driving stoned on grass without the extra intoxication of booze, wandered into the oncoming lane of traffic. The next time some stoner gets in my face and tells me that smoking grass is harmless, I’ll try to resist the urge to lose my temper. Hopefully, I will have enough self-control to just walk away.
I agree every time “Twelve years in Virginia” writes he/she is putting Doug or the citizens of this county down. Its like he/she lives to disagree and lives sitting on the computer waiting to be able to do that..I think if you are going to be so strong on your opinions and putting others down you shouldn’t hide!!
My mother’s dear friend lost her husband in the wee hours on a weekday morning as he was driving to work. He was hit by a a man drunk out of his mind. Nearly 5 years later to the day, this woman lost her daughter who was on her way to a festival to a drunk driver. What are the odds? The accidents were in 69 and 74.
In 2000, my mother’s friend was hit head on by a driver stoned on pot. She survived.
I personally don’t care if people drink themselves into a coma, or smoke pot until the cows come home. Is it too much to ask that they stay off the road?
Twelve years in Virginia you are crazy!! This woman killed people because she was impaired. If she would not have been high and drunk she probally would not have made the decision to go the wrong way.. So yes her “problem” probally is what killed her children and the other men!!….and so you don’t like Doug, but to cotinue to say that the “drug” is not at fault I beleive is not right.A person is part at blame but the “drug” gets them and controls them, rather it be beer,pot,meth,pills,whatever….I have watched people I love be took over by this junk and they didn’t start out saying Im going to ruin my life and all around me, but that is what is happening..It probally is part their fault but if they don’t think “it” is a problem(like you)things are not going to be different..So the junk sure don’t make people better..and as far as making fun of christians..it sounds like you are the type that if a person beleives different than you they are wrong..Every opinion you have probally isn’t right!!!….and Doug for you AMEN on your stand on this topic!!! but whatever happened to you can’t blog if you don’t use your name???
…Where did you meet all these people who never heard that drugs and booze impair your judgement?
they probally know it will impair them but once they are impaired who makes that decision. One of the #1 traits of an addict is they cannot forsee consequences. Im not saying that a person is not at fault. They are, if they are impaired and kill a person they should be held responsible, but I doubt that they set out to kill another person, or to neglect their children etc.. They start out thinking they are going to have a good time or fix a problem and before they know it they are an addict..I think the point was that the “drug” impaired this lady..She would not have made the decision to drive on the wrong side of the road without being high or drunk,she did not wake up and say “I guess Ill wreck and kill my kids today” She was impaired!! She made a very very poor decision probally because she was under the influence and even though she could have said Im not going to do this an addict dont reason things like a non addict sain person..That goes back to Dougs point that smoking a little and getting that duh feeling does impair you and mess up your ability to do things the way they should be done…
First, let me state that capital letters have far more uses than to indicate someone is “yelling” or “shouting” at you. They can also be used to indicate words or ideas you intend to be emphasized.
Second, I posed you, and all other interested people, a number of questions with regard to (what else) should be controlled in our society. The millions on mind altering prescriptions? The tens of millions diagnosed as mentally ill? The tens of millions taking pain medications clearly marked [warning: do not operate machinery]? When automobile accidents happen that take peoples lives these drugs, that clearly and admittedly, alter both perception and reaction time are not even tested for. When consumers of these products kill who is responsible Doug (or anybody else)? Or, is it the products that are responsible?
Third, You write… “Society also has to take responsibility for helping those who need assistance in dealing with their demons.”… Demons Doug? Are you now giving anthropomorphic characteristics to substances that people choose to ingest?
This, I think Doug, is the heart of the problem. You and so many like you cry out for social responsibility while simultaneously providing excuses for the very behavior you claim to condemn. Demons?
You write, …”What I do object to are those who blithely dismiss drinking and/or grass use as a social issue while ignoring the severe impact the misuse of both or either has on our society”… Who is doing that Doug? Certainly not me! I don’t advocate the misuse of anything. (I would have capitalized the word anything, but, knowing how offensive you would find that, I refrained)
I happen to think that the use of any substance is a personal issue, not a social one. Misuse, and its repercussions, render it a “social issue”. The existence of chemicals that alter perception, in and of themselves, is no more than a fact of life. The decisions people make with regard to their use is, I think, the question at hand that you, for reasons I do not understand, seem to wish to blame on the drugs or substances themselves. So, here is another question. A while back a devout Christian walked into a Church and shot a doctor because his religion preached that the doctor was a murderer and that God approved of “an eye for an eye”. Do we burn the Bibles? Or, do we blame it on the murderer falling in with a “Bad Crowd”? It’s funny, but I have met so many people who fell in with a bad crowd, but never any members of that crowd itself.
You also write, …”As a recovering alcoholic, my first step was taking responsibility for my life and my actions.”…
No Doug. That, after 30 years, was your last step. I’m very happy it seems to have worked out for you. I am reasonably sure that during that 30 year period there was a time when your drinking could have resulted in harm to innocent others. If, at this late date, you would still blame the presence of alcohol in the universe for that hypothetical harm I would suggest that you have missed the point entirely. That is, if you had killed a member of my family, the very last thing I would be blaming… is the alcohol.
A lack of personal responsibility for our actions, endemic in our society and tolerated to an astonishing degree, is the culprit here Doug. Condemning the means used to exercise irresponsibility is no more than a fools game I’m afraid. I won’t play it.
…that trying to answer them in in a rational manner is impossible. From your comments, it is obvious to me that you have no concept of what a substance abuser or alcoholic faces. Everybody has demons in their life, be they phobias, mental illnesses, conceits or abuses.
You also have no concept of what an alcoholic must face if you think, for a second, that taking responsibility is the last step of recovery. No other steps are possible until you accept the responsibility for your addiction.
Don’t pretend to lecture me on this subject. I’ve been there, I’ve lived it and I will continue to live with it for the rest of my life. And don’t ever expect me to accept the argument that substance use is a personal choice. Your right to make that personal choice ends when that use becomes a problem for others, be it murder on the highway or abusing other while under the influence. I will not be lectured by someone who hides behind a screen name.
I’m not offended. I’m just saddened that so much ignorance exists about the dangers of drug abuse in this country.
This is Doug’s blog and he can opine as he chooses. He reports for the Floyd Press. Big difference. Just sayin’!
[ …”The next time some stoner gets in my face and tells me that smoking grass is harmless, I’ll try to resist the urge to lose my temper. Hopefully, I will have enough self-control to just walk away.”…]
NOTHING Doug, in and of itself, is harmful until it falls within reach of an irresponsible person.
[with regard to] ..”I write what I feel and I have the guts to do so under my own name with my personal history published on this web site for all too see.”..
I write what I think. I feel with my hands. Like you, I use words. My biography, pedigree, shoe size and “my own name” should be as irrelevant to you as yours is to me. None of the above will change any of the dictionary meanings of the alphabetical symbols we both use in an attempt to communicate our respective ideas. In your case, “feelings”. Will you be requesting an 8×10 glossy photograph next? You have my word, it won’t help.
…but the readers of this web site deserve to know the identity of those who hide behind anonymous screen names and spews verbal diarrhea. Your gmail account is also a typical ploy of those who are afraid of public disclosure. You don’t even have the decency to use your name there.
I’m used to such tactics. It’s one of the prices of running a web site and I run quite a few. I see hit-and-run attackers like you come and go. You will tire of this soon enough and move on or you will do something that triggers the spam filters here and that will be the end of it.
From the time “Twelve years in Virginia” began posting comments he (or she) has been condescending about the Old Dominion and its residents.
So much willingness to speak out but so little courage in standing behind those opinions by letting us know who he or she is.