NY Mom in Wrong-Way Crash Rarely Drank: Husband

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 6, 2009 3:25 PM CDT
NY Mom in Wrong-Way Crash Rarely Drank: Husband
People watch as one of five caskets are carried out of Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church in Floral Park, N.Y.   (AP Photo)

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.

Schuler's attorney, Dominic Barbara, said the 36-year-old Cablevision executive had diabetes, a suspicious bump on her leg, and a mouth abscess that hadn't been treated for weeks before the July 26 wreck. "I think she had a stroke of some sort," said Barbara. "From the stroke came all the other issues." Schuler said that the couple went through a normal routine on the Sunday before he last saw her at a campsite in upstate New York. "She was fine," he said. "We had a cup of coffee in the morning, we packed the cars up like we always do and we headed out." (More Diane Schuler stories.)

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