NY Wrong-Way Driver to Be Exhumed

Jackie Hance recounts grief over Taconic Parkway accident

(NEWSER) - "Our baby is due in the fall" is how Jackie Hance ends her Ladies' Home Journal essay. The otherwise unremarkable line is anything but, considering that the Long Island woman is the mother of three young girls killed in a horrific accident on New Jersey's Taconic Parkway in 2009. Five others also died in the crash, when Hance's sister-in-law crashed head-first into an SUV. Toxicology reports showed high amounts of alcohol and marijuana in her system, notes ABC News . More»

(AP) - The number of women charged with driving under the influence has increased nearly 30% during the past decade, Transportation Department officials said today, while the number of men fell 7.5% in the same period. The department says the number of impaired women involved in a fatal crash increased in 10 states from 2007 to 2008. More»

(NEWSER) - It’s easy to condemn Diane Schuler—the mom who drove drunk and stoned the wrong way on a highway and killed herself, four children, and three others—writes Susan Cheever on Salon. But “for those of us who have ever driven a car after having a few beers, and for mothers who have driven in cars with too many small children, the story is more complicated." The real evil is alcoholism, writes Cheever, herself a former alcoholic, and judging one person won’t help a bit. More»

(AP) - The woman who drove drunk and caused a New York highway crash that killed eight people rarely drank, said her husband, who suggested diabetes and other health problems were to blame. "She was not a drinker. She was not an alcoholic," Daniel Schuler said at a tearful news conference today. "Something medically had to have happened." Police say Schuler downed more than 10 vodka drinks and smoked marijuana before her minivan crashed into an SUV. More»

Dad faces trial for 'intoxication manslaughter'

(NEWSER) - A Houston driver was charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter yesterday after his car careened into a flooded ditch, killing three of his kids and two others. The 32-year-old dad was arrested after failing an on-the-spot sobriety test, said police. The body of a 4-year-old girl is still missing, reports the Houston Chronicle. The driver was on his cell phone when the accident occurred, according to law enforcement authorities. More»