The documentary about it is so frustrating to watch. Expert after expert tells them the official account is the right one, but they won't listen, in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Jackie wrote a book about losing her girls and I wept all the way through it with what she had her husband had to go through. It started off with her being grief-stricken and mad at Diane but by the end, she was at a place where she wasn't okay but could exist. I also read the book from the family of the Bastardi father & son and from beginning to end, it was hatred of Diane and more so Danny. As they said, if they were honest about it then maybe they could start to forgive and understand but it's the fact that years later, they were still claiming it wasn't Diane's fault that made things so hard.
I've watched it several times over the years and it's clear they knew it was the truth but didn't want to admit it. I'm in no way defending what she did but having that as a husband would make anyone stressed. I mean he lost his little girl and wife yet was mad because he still had his son to take care of...which he didn't do as it seems Jay (the SIL) did all the work.
I’m watching this now and I’m sick of the husband and bestfriend are they playing dumb cause they can’t believe experts don’t know what they are talking about. She was drunk and high stop playing dumb!
It's weird, I figured out a friend was an alcoholic recently and had never suspected a thing previously. The only clue was that the vodka in the bottle kept going down day after day. Had she hid the bottles and disposed of them secretly, I never would have figured it out.
Last time there was a Diane Schuler post I offered that while black out drunk I have according to second hound accounts been able to hold intelligent conversation, with no one the wiser.
Last week I succeeded in the gold metal feat of having a teleconference with my psychiatrist while black out drunk, coming to two hours later and freaking out because of the deductible, only for the secretary to ask if I was calling back to make an appointment. Just got the call for my meds to be picked up.
It is very easy to get away with alcohol abuse. Only person who can suss me out is my mother, and she’s still wrong from time to time.
My mom was able to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes except me and my brother. I could always tell when she was drinking- she was also “the cool aunt” like Diane Schuler was.
I hope you can get some support with your alcoholism- my mom died of cirrhosis of the liver in 2020. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t wish she could’ve gotten the help/stuck with it. Best of luck to you 🫶🏻
**Child Warning in story, no photos.**
The red Ford minivan hurtled down the fast lane of the northbound Taconic State Parkway in Mount Pleasant — but it wasn't going north.
Diane Schuler, a 36-year-old Long Island mother of two, was at the wheel, drunk and high, headed south at 70 mph.
On that bright sunny Sunday 10 years ago, July 26, 2009, families were shattered in a fiery crash that killed eight, including four girls, ages 2 to 8. At the time, the crash was the deadliest on a Westchester roadway in 75 years. Ten years later, nothing has happened to change that distinction.
There have been more wrong-way incidents in the decade since and, while the Taconic tragedy is still the deadliest, it still bears hallmarks of most wrong-way crashes: They are rare, they are often deadly and they are often fueled by alcohol.
Diane Schuler was driving back from a weekend at a Sullivan County campground.
The Cablevision executive and PTA mom, who by all appearances lived a happy life, had a lot in her system that day: the equivalent of 10 drinks, and marijuana that the coroner said had been smoked within an hour of her death. Witnesses on the Taconic said she was driving "pin straight" at 70 mph in the fast lane, not swerving.
Schuler was not alone in that van, driving back to Long Island. With her were her children: Bryan, 5, and Erin, 2. And her brother’s kids: Emma Hance, 8; Alyson Hance, 7; and Katie Hance, 5. She wasn’t alone on the Taconic, either. Frantic drivers flooded 911 dispatchers with reports of a red minivan heading the wrong way down the parkway. They had tried to stop her, they told investigators. They had honked their horns and flashed their lights. Nothing worked.
Schuler drove nearly two miles in the wrong direction until, at 1:35 p.m., she hit a SUV driven by Guy Bastardi of Yonkers. He and his dad, Michael, and their family friend, Daniel Longo, were heading to Yorktown Heights for a family Sunday pasta dinner with family. They did not make it.
The impact killed the Bastardis and Longo, Schuler and her daughter, and all three Hance sisters. The only survivor was 5-year-old Bryan Schuler, who sustained a severe brain injury. Witnesses flew into action to pull Schuler and the kids from the burning van, which had rolled over as it went down an embankment onto a grassy median. It wasn't until days later that the toxicology report's stunning results were known.
The Taconic wrong-way crash has been the subject of two books, true-crime podcasts and a 2011 HBO documentary that drew its title from the chilling words of 8-year-old Emma Hance: "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane," who had expressed concern about her aunt's condition in a cellphone call to her father shortly before the crash.
In the documentary, Schuler's husband steadfastly denied that his wife was capable of such poor decision-making, that she rarely drank and even more rarely smoked marijuana. There had to be another explanation, he said: a stroke triggered by a tooth abscess, perhaps.
There were lawsuits and later, sealed settlements against Schuler's estate.
Photos: https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f237/pictures-diane-schuler-taconic-parkway-crash-85422/
Article: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-pleasant/2019/07/25/diane-schuler-taconic-state-parkway-crash/1769219001/
So incredibly sad. I remember how the Hance family wanted nothing to do with the documentary and how Diane’s family was in denial but imagine being in either of those positions, I can’t blame the denial. Especially when grieving. I have to remind myself that although it’s clear she didn’t have a stroke
I can’t imagine someone having that level of addiction going completely unnoticed by family members, but maybe they thought she was getting better?
It’s hard to do, but people in my family that can’t prioritize my children over alcohol don’t get to be alone with them.
You'd be surprised the number of people that drink daily and seem completely fine. Constantly walking that fine line between drinking enough to keep from getting sick but not enough to get completely hammered.
Functioning alcoholics. There are several in my family. Just because they can drink and seem ok doesn’t mean they are ok.
I’ve had several conversations with my mother that she doesn’t remember because she was drinking but she didn’t seem impaired. These folks also overestimate their tolerance and do stupid shit.
Not the person you responded to, but I can tell you how I got sober. For context, I have CPTSD and I self medicated with alcohol (it didn't help that addiction is a serious issue with several close family members, so my risk factor for alcoholism was already prominent). At some point and after many cringeworthy moments, I realized that I had a serious problem. The thing that I thought I needed to help me cope with day to day life, was the very thing that would likely kill me or see me hurting someone else. There were many failed attempts at sobriety but it always ended with me blackout drunk and hating myself more and more. I wasn't really living my life; I was just biding my time until the next drink. I finally hit rock bottom and had to come to terms with where my life was at. If I wanted to die, I could continue drinking. If I wanted to live, I had to stop drinking. I accepted that there was nobody else that could do this for me and that I needed to hold myself accountable for my own actions. I was terrified of the withdrawal period but accepted that I had to endure it to find my way back to myself again. I kept myself very busy during times that I would have typically been drinking. Visiting with family and friends, where I put all my focus into the moment before me. It wasn't easy. I literally had to retrain my brain. When I'd think about drinking, I'd find something worthwhile to do instead. Slowly, I just stopped thinking about alcohol fulltime and began to feel human again. It's been years now and I'm still sober. There has definitely been temptation and near relapses but with willpower and sheer determination, I'm here. When I think about drinking now, I just have to remind myself that it's not something I can manage without painful consequences. It sucks during social gatherings sometimes but even that gets easier with time. It's a deliberate choice that you will have to keep making every single day for the rest of your life. When you think you're "good now" and might be able to let down your guard, you're actually just in jeopardy of endangering yourself again. So, you keep at it. Something else that always helps keep me on track is that if I drank, I'd have to hide it from every single person in my life. If you have to hide anything, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. I do have loved ones that benefitted from 12 step groups. It just wasn't the best path for me.
thank you so much for this comment. i am exactly in the position you were the moment you realized it was time to stop, except i am suicidal, helpless and scared i wont be able to get sober by myself. i hope i can learn from your story
I was absolutely suicidal, at that point in my life. I was using the alcohol to cope with a tremendous amount of pain, fear and hopelessness. It wasn't a pretty moment for me and there were so many times that I almost just gave in or even checked out. I couldn't let that be my story, though. There's no dignity in dying a drunk. One of my family members would have either discovered my dead body and the shock of that would absolutely put them into a psych ward or turning into what I had let myself become. OR they would have had to be the one to identify my corpse, all waxy and bloated looking...reeking of cheap vodka and probably bodily fluids. There would only be pain and so much disappointment at the memory of me. And that's just... not what anyone deserves. Every single one of us deserves dignity and peace. You are not helpless. You are still here. You're digging through old reddit posts looking for anything to pull you through this moment in your life that has you down on your knees. That is you holding onto hope. You are still in this fight. It's not over unless you want it to be. You are your most powerful weapon. If you were capable of destroying something that you once loved, then you are also just as capable of building it back again. You are going to rebuild it so that it is not only stronger but also so much more beautiful than it ever was before. Have you ever seen a piece of Kintsugi pottery? It's this Japanese art process of mending broken pottery by filling in the cracks with gold. Everything is fused back together to make this authentic and stunning piece of art that is far more valuable than what it was before the piece was ever broken. That's you, right now. You are repairing yourself and every piece that you have lost will be filled in with intention and careful consideration. It's going to take time and you will have to be gentle and kind to yourself. You didn't get this way overnight. You won't get better in a day. You deserve your own grace right now. Start making a list of everything you want your life to be and then start making side lists of how to achieve every single one of those things. Intention. Everything you do should be done with the specific intention to do exactly that. If something doesn't come out the way you want the first time, that's okay. Just learn from what didn't work and try again. The only way you are going to learn to love yourself is to learn who you really are. Pick up a hobby, start doing some volunteer work, listen to comedy specials and podcasts to make you smile, tell yourself about 3 things you're good at for every 1 thing your brain tries to remind you that you suck at, start talking more to the people that are in your life, look into therapy and start cutting out the unhealthy habits that are enabling you to stay stuck. You're a lot of things that you don't even know yet, but not one of them includes... helpless, hopeless, undeserving or done.
The husband didn’t notice because he didn’t want to. Diane shouldered the majority of the financial and household burdens. He is basically a man child.
I agree. And in the documentary he was like pissed basically that he had to take care of his son afterwards. I’m sure he she was not getting the help that she needed because it seems like she ran everything in the household and I can see how that would lead her to drink
>eyes
My uncle was an alcoholic in the traditional sense - drank heavily, unable to control it and everyone knew it. His wife was a functional one though - drank almost as much as he did, was drunk just a frequently and no one knew it for a very very long time (I worked with her for a while). And to everyone outside the family, it appeared she was the glue keeping the family together -- to be fair, I think she was.
The husband gives off major douche vibes and it only gets worse when he opens his mouth. He comes across as the type of husband who helped exactly zero percent of the time and purposely ignores the fact that his wife is overwhelmed.
I’ve never been able to make sense of this tragedy but one thing is for sure—Aunt Diane was absolutely trashed on that drive.
My current theory is she had an opioid addiction, was having trouble getting her hands on more pain pills, so she tried to self medicate through her withdrawal. Maybe took an edible and didn’t realize how slow and hard it would hit. Once it did hit it’s game over because of the vodka.
They found a ton of vodka in her stomach and her BAC was more than 2x the legal limit. She may have been self medicating, but there’s little doubt that she was absolutely drunk out of her mind.
Legal limit can mean drastically different things if you’re an alcohol abuser (which I am)
My question is, we know she was most likely abusing a substance, but what type and how much? I’m a binger, if I’m drinking I don’t plan to move much for the next 18 hours. If she was habitual or high functioning the edible could have messed her up, if she wasn’t used to them and didn’t know how she would be effected and had an anxiety reaction her erratic driving would make way more sense. If she was habitual and drunk more than she was used to or a different liquor of choice, or a mix of her drink of choice and something on the side, she could have wanted to keep up appearances.
Your opinion on the opioids is in the same vein. Yeah there’s something wrong with Aunt Diane, but it’s been wrong for a while and it’s not a tooth ache.
Those kids in the car must have been terrified, and poor Bastardis.
I’m really curious where she got the weed from. Did they ever say in the documentary? Maybe her husband didn’t know about that and he was getting it for her and maybe that’s partially why he didn’t want to admit that she was messed up because he influence that? Just spit balling I’m just really curious if she got it from a friend or someone in the family Or just a random acquaintance
She smoked weed as well. Getting cross faded, when you're not accustomed to it, is a fast track to blacking out. The way the driver on the off ramps describes her face sounds like prime time cross faded blackout.
Her brother begged her to stay where she was and was frantically searching for her and his children. Why didn’t she just listen?! She’s literally puking her guts out on the side of the road. It’s just so ridiculously senseless.
I remember the doc on HBO. Very sad and the husband is complete denial. He's a real POS because he tried to sue everyone he could, and that includes the brother of the deceased children because it was his truck. Disgusting.
His main defense was that she was suffering from a tooth abscess. Smh
Stephen King wrote a very good, very poignant short story inspired by this incident(though the internal monologue of the driver is obviously his imagination). It is called “Herman Wouk is Still Alive”, and I imagine many of the morbid folks of this sub(not an insult) would enjoy it.
I've read it several times. It's really good. But I love everything Stephen King has written. I'd absolutely love to meet him and pick his brain. He fascinates me.
King is a recovering alcoholic himself, it’s one of the recurring motifs of his books. He’s from New England too (other side but still) so it probably hit home for him.
Plus he was run over. Can't remember if the driver was drinking, but I do know he was trying to stop his dog from getting into some groceries and not focused.
I almost died in a wrong way crash myself…narrowly escaped.
Was driving from New York to a Boston on 95 North in CT near exit 58…won’t ever forget that mile marker. It was lightly raining at 11pm on a Sunday night. Very little cars on the road. I was in the left lane passing a car to my right as we approached a small hill, lights came over the horizon. I didn’t think much of it as on the highway at night you see lights coming at you all the time…well despite my inability to detect those lights were in my lane and having no conscious thought of the danger, I moved over out of the passing lane and right as I crossed the dotted white the car was past me…it all happened so quick. It took a min to process it as the driver was doing over 100mph and myself atleast 70 so combined speed made it extremely hard to compute how fast the car was coming…well I escaped with my life but the car behind me, a father getting out of work late going home, was killed. The man driving on the wrong side of the highway died as well, and was fleeing police after stealing the car…that stretch of highway has a crash every year almost due to a lot of car jacking eluding police using the method of going the wrong way….
I’ve been sickened by the thought of what happened that night but grateful my subconscious decision making did what I needed to do so I could survive
The awareness of having been *this close* has a profound effect. I’m glad you’re here but also understand the mixed feeling about it you might have. It’s all understandable. Take care.
I had two wrong-way encounters on my old commute.
One was a silver Toyota Corolla barreling at me northbound in the southbound lanes of 495 in MA. I moved from the left lane to the middle and the car blew past me, got hard on the brakes and did a u-turn. Luckily there was next to no traffic due to the weather.
Second was getting off the exit for my old workplace. I’m coming down the off-ramp and here comes a Honda Fit driving at me, driver gesturing at me wildly and flashing her lights. I stop and she stops, visibly pissed. I honked at her and pointed to my left where cars were getting on the highway the correct way. She gives me a sheepish look, lets me by then u-turns and pulls up behind me.
Scary how people mess up something so simple.
I cannot fathom how those parents that lost their three girls managed to live on. I don’t think I’d last five minutes with that pain before I ended it. My god it’s horrible.
IIRC (it's been a few years since I've read her book), the mom (Jackie Hance) had her tubes tied after their third daughter was born, so was wondering if it was even possible to get pregnant again, not to mention the costs. But the fertility clinic she went to completely comped everything once they realized who she was. It was successful after a few rounds and they had another little girl, and the name they gave her had little nods to her other 3 sisters. Thought that whole situation was sweet (or as 'sweet' as something awful like this can be).
This is the case that really gets me, drunk off her ass. RIP to the children and adults she killed. My personal belief is she was blind drunk, but still desperately trying to make everything ok to preserve her reputation.
I’m not disputing that Diane was drunk I just have a couple of questions.
Does anyone know if she had liver damage from long term Alcoholism or was this more a binge?
I know she was good at hiding her drinking (just based on that day where she’s not seen drinking but was drunk) but I’ve wondered also what her mood was that morning after camping? Was she raging because she’d been left with the kids again? I’ve read that she took on a lot and I didn’t get the impression that her husband was very helpful. I wonder if she snapped.
liver damage isn't always a guaranteed side effect of long term alcoholism. my grandpa's liver made it out unscathed even though he was a raging alcoholic until a stroke in his early 60s. he got type 2 diabetes from it too.
as for her mindframe, i do recall in the documentary her sister in law said diane and her husband had been arguing loudly a couple hours before she left with all the kids, and didn't seem particularly happy about it, but didnt seem angry or extremely upset.
That is one thing that’s always confused me…. If she was a “functioning alcoholic” you’d think she’d known better than to get absolutely slammed before driving those children home. Someone said opiate addiction and possibly couldn’t find pills, so self medicated with alcohol - that makes the most sense to me.
functioning alcholism doesn't necessarily mean they have unimpaired, rational thought processes, more so that they're able to carry on their day normally *enough* to where they come off as a functioning person. but their world still revolves around their addiction, so they will plan for it. this can manifest in situations where an alcoholic tries to limit their alcohol intake to get them through whatever they're doing without the withdrawl, and before the alcohol starts to majorly affect them — which is exactly what i believe diane was trying to do, but unfortunately she was high as a kite.
diane's THC levels were high enough that it would've sped up impairment, leading to less awareness of how much she was drinking overall. it's possible she intended to dilute her alcohol with the orange juice she got from mcdonalds knowing it would slow the process a little, but all logic went out the window once the alcohol and THC suddenly hit her like a brick wall.
overall her actions were of course stupid, disgustingly reckless, insanely selfish, horribly negligent and tragically deadly, but certainly not out of the realm of a functioning alcoholic's mindframe.
“Alcohol and THC suddenly hit her like a brick wall”
I think this is what actually happened. I had a bad experience with both years ago, fortunately I wasn’t driving at the time.
I also think it’s the most likely
She drank her normal amount, where she was drunk but her “normal drunk,” so she didn’t really think about crossing the line with a few extra drinks. She was on vacation after all, when you’re on vacation it’s not abuse it’s just having fun. You make excuses. You venture outside your comfort zone, mix some stuff, enough different stuff to loose track compared to what you’re used to drinking. In the morning, maybe she was trying to fight off a hangover. Took a few more nips, just enough to wet the tongue. Maybe thought the edible would “calm her nerves,” less herky jerky driving, more relaxed, people would just think she was tired.
Slow culmination of a bunch of little things. An NTSB report of what dominos had to call, but all the dominos were into Aunt Diane’s mouth.
Fixating on the alcohol is missing the bigger picture. She also smoked weed. Cross fading when you don't have a tolerance for it blacks you out almost immediately. I believe the husband said she had smoked that day. Even if she drank just a little bit it could have disastrous results.
just a depressing story all around. addiction secrecy, senseless deaths of innocent people, a child left permanently disabled, families ruined for life, insanely heavy denial of the facts.. it all sucks. such a preventable tragedy. i wish diane couldve gotten the help she needed. RIP to all the victims.
Its crazy to me that anyone can get so blackout drunk and high as to pull off getting into a vehicle in the first place. So much life wasted for one dumbass decision, having that much and deciding to drive. That's incredibly sad.
I found this post in the “Best of Craigslist” section a few years ago. Every once in awhile I’ll go back and read it again. I wonder if the man who wrote it is doing okay today.
[I saw that crash on the Taconic last Sunday](https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/1306619502.html)
That’s so incredibly sad. I guess we sometimes overlook how impacted everyone who witnesses something like this would be. And how it would linger with them forever.
There was an incredible post that detailed what withdrawal was like and how Diane suffered all the symptoms from it.
It was from a guy who went through something similar and I wish I could find it
I watched the documentary and saw that at one point she was prescribed Ambien. I wonder if she was still taking it and perhaps accidentally took it that morning. Or maybe she was abusing it? I took Ambien at a low, prescribed dose and would still have to lock myself in and my phone up at night because I would do things and not remember. I'd wake up in a different bed, have conversations I didn't remember. I got off of it as quickly as I could, even though it meant changing out my medication regimen entirely.
She still drank and smoked when she shouldn't have, but maybe that would explain the excess. I just can't see someone who was so skilled at hiding it and controlling it for so long randomly going off the rails one day without any prior incidents. I'm sure it does happen, though.
I cringed when they kept saying "she's not a drunk, she loved her kids." As someone who watched someone near and dear to me change into an entirely different person (and ultimately die) due to addiction, both can be true. My loved one made horrible, stupid, selfish decisions when he was in active addiction. But the core of who he was as a person was caring, empathetic and generous. Addiction is a dangerous thing.
Weird details stuck with me. They found her cell phone sitting on the guardrail where she had placed it sometime after her last call, mid-ride. That she abandoned it like that and drove off without it, like burning a bridge.
I'm not sure she didn't intentionally kill herself and those kids. I just finished watching the documentary again for the first time in years and re-watching it, hearing how she was pin straight on that road even though she was wasted, I just wonder if it was intentional. How fucking horrible. A senseless tragedy.
I think she was an alcoholic and smoker but jo one knew. I've always had a theory Diane's husband and the sister in law glued to his side through the documentary where having an affair and Diane found out the night before or the morning. Then she completely snapped mentally before she left her phone behind and got so drunk and high that she blacked Out, forgot she had innocent kids with her and killed herself.
I completely agree! I know they had been through a tragedy but they just had such a weird dynamic through the documentary. Like she was basically taking care of his kid and doing everything for him around the house. Super weird. Maybe that’s why they were in such denial because they don’t want to believe that they could’ve been the cause of Diane’s drinking and smoking that morning. I believe that she was probably an alcoholic but if she found out about an affair that could’ve made her drink more than normal
I've re-watched the documentary tonight and hearing witnesses say that she was pin straight driving on that road even though she was wasted makes me think her death was intentional. But how horrid to take all those innocent children with her.
Also, seeing the recent photos of her they showed during the film, she has what I call the alcoholic face, it's just so puffy which is a sign. My spouse at one point was a heavy drinker and all our photos from that time his face is puffy like that, too. It's a dead giveaway now when I know to look for it.
Ohh that’s a good point! She definitely has that alcoholic puffy face look. I’m leaning towards intentional as well. I think she got in a fight with her husband in the morning and decided to drink and smoke more than she normally did but then realized how messed up she was and was terrified of being found out and so maybe she felt like suicide was the only way out? I know she had a phone call with another one in the family when she was pulled to the side until maybe she was worried that they could tell how drunk she was and she knew that Family would have been furious.I feel like it was just a combination of a few different things. Regardless this documentary still makes me so uncomfortable every time I watch it it’s awful.
1 out of every 5 drivers around you on the road at ANY GIVEN TIME are impaired by something. They rarely get caught unless they cause an accident. It's awful.
I live close to the neighborhood where the family lived. There is a foundation in their name called the Hance Family Foundation. It was such a sad story and everyone in the neighborhood who knew them was in shocked.
[The Hance Family Foundation](https://www.hancefamilyfoundation.org/)
Just watched this documentary on HBO: the immediate family is in clear denial and I would not be the least bit surprised that the husband is omitting some truths about her personality (lying?). You can go on about addiction and keeping it secret from family and being an active high functioning member of society which sure is totally possible, but from watching the doc, I don’t buy it. He knew.
I don’t believe it was intentional but what I would like to know or see is how/where she got on that off-ramp going the wrong way. - is it clearly marked wrong way? How did she turn onto it, and the moment she did turn was there honking and cars in the way? From the details provided, she was going the complete opposite direction of home. And if she pulled over for some amount of time at the toll booth, no cops or port authority took notice?
Hopefully the family finds a way to move on and the surviving child leads a full life.
I watched this for the first time last night. So so much denial. The heart will truly shield the body from terrible pain. I mean, all that testing with the same results. And they still just couldn’t accept it. Very sad.
I don't know much about this case, but I wonder if this could be a non diagnosed case of [ABS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-brewery_syndrome) (auto brewery syndrome). She is a very strong candidate. She had diabetes and had just ate a high carboidrate meal. I wonder if she was on antibiotics too some days before.
Did somebody investigate into it at the time? I'm not sure if it can be diagnosed post mortem.
This is so sad. I remember when this happened, and then seeing then seeing the documentary. This one still difficult. I feel awful for everyone involved because it just seemed like on one hand she had a medical emergency and so many people accused her of being this horrible human. But then on the other hand if she was purposefully drunk/wrecked it’s just awful all around.
I remember this. So tragic. Her family was in extreme denial.
The documentary about it is so frustrating to watch. Expert after expert tells them the official account is the right one, but they won't listen, in the face of overwhelming evidence.
That bothered me too! So much denial. No wonder some of their family cut contact after losing their kids in the accident.
Jackie wrote a book about losing her girls and I wept all the way through it with what she had her husband had to go through. It started off with her being grief-stricken and mad at Diane but by the end, she was at a place where she wasn't okay but could exist. I also read the book from the family of the Bastardi father & son and from beginning to end, it was hatred of Diane and more so Danny. As they said, if they were honest about it then maybe they could start to forgive and understand but it's the fact that years later, they were still claiming it wasn't Diane's fault that made things so hard.
I've watched it several times over the years and it's clear they knew it was the truth but didn't want to admit it. I'm in no way defending what she did but having that as a husband would make anyone stressed. I mean he lost his little girl and wife yet was mad because he still had his son to take care of...which he didn't do as it seems Jay (the SIL) did all the work.
Didn’t he say he never wanted kids?
Yep and moaned about it as he was now left to look after Brian.
I’m watching this now and I’m sick of the husband and bestfriend are they playing dumb cause they can’t believe experts don’t know what they are talking about. She was drunk and high stop playing dumb!
Face of overwhelming evidence her death picture 12 denial is not a river in Egypt
It's weird, I figured out a friend was an alcoholic recently and had never suspected a thing previously. The only clue was that the vodka in the bottle kept going down day after day. Had she hid the bottles and disposed of them secretly, I never would have figured it out.
I was like this too, and it’s scary how easy it can be to hide. I hope you and your friend are okay
Last time there was a Diane Schuler post I offered that while black out drunk I have according to second hound accounts been able to hold intelligent conversation, with no one the wiser. Last week I succeeded in the gold metal feat of having a teleconference with my psychiatrist while black out drunk, coming to two hours later and freaking out because of the deductible, only for the secretary to ask if I was calling back to make an appointment. Just got the call for my meds to be picked up. It is very easy to get away with alcohol abuse. Only person who can suss me out is my mother, and she’s still wrong from time to time.
My mom was able to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes except me and my brother. I could always tell when she was drinking- she was also “the cool aunt” like Diane Schuler was. I hope you can get some support with your alcoholism- my mom died of cirrhosis of the liver in 2020. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t wish she could’ve gotten the help/stuck with it. Best of luck to you 🫶🏻
**Child Warning in story, no photos.** The red Ford minivan hurtled down the fast lane of the northbound Taconic State Parkway in Mount Pleasant — but it wasn't going north. Diane Schuler, a 36-year-old Long Island mother of two, was at the wheel, drunk and high, headed south at 70 mph. On that bright sunny Sunday 10 years ago, July 26, 2009, families were shattered in a fiery crash that killed eight, including four girls, ages 2 to 8. At the time, the crash was the deadliest on a Westchester roadway in 75 years. Ten years later, nothing has happened to change that distinction. There have been more wrong-way incidents in the decade since and, while the Taconic tragedy is still the deadliest, it still bears hallmarks of most wrong-way crashes: They are rare, they are often deadly and they are often fueled by alcohol. Diane Schuler was driving back from a weekend at a Sullivan County campground. The Cablevision executive and PTA mom, who by all appearances lived a happy life, had a lot in her system that day: the equivalent of 10 drinks, and marijuana that the coroner said had been smoked within an hour of her death. Witnesses on the Taconic said she was driving "pin straight" at 70 mph in the fast lane, not swerving. Schuler was not alone in that van, driving back to Long Island. With her were her children: Bryan, 5, and Erin, 2. And her brother’s kids: Emma Hance, 8; Alyson Hance, 7; and Katie Hance, 5. She wasn’t alone on the Taconic, either. Frantic drivers flooded 911 dispatchers with reports of a red minivan heading the wrong way down the parkway. They had tried to stop her, they told investigators. They had honked their horns and flashed their lights. Nothing worked. Schuler drove nearly two miles in the wrong direction until, at 1:35 p.m., she hit a SUV driven by Guy Bastardi of Yonkers. He and his dad, Michael, and their family friend, Daniel Longo, were heading to Yorktown Heights for a family Sunday pasta dinner with family. They did not make it. The impact killed the Bastardis and Longo, Schuler and her daughter, and all three Hance sisters. The only survivor was 5-year-old Bryan Schuler, who sustained a severe brain injury. Witnesses flew into action to pull Schuler and the kids from the burning van, which had rolled over as it went down an embankment onto a grassy median. It wasn't until days later that the toxicology report's stunning results were known. The Taconic wrong-way crash has been the subject of two books, true-crime podcasts and a 2011 HBO documentary that drew its title from the chilling words of 8-year-old Emma Hance: "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane," who had expressed concern about her aunt's condition in a cellphone call to her father shortly before the crash. In the documentary, Schuler's husband steadfastly denied that his wife was capable of such poor decision-making, that she rarely drank and even more rarely smoked marijuana. There had to be another explanation, he said: a stroke triggered by a tooth abscess, perhaps. There were lawsuits and later, sealed settlements against Schuler's estate. Photos: https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f237/pictures-diane-schuler-taconic-parkway-crash-85422/ Article: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-pleasant/2019/07/25/diane-schuler-taconic-state-parkway-crash/1769219001/
Insane this woman was 36. She looks like a 50 year old mom in the pictures they always show of her.
Alcohol ages you severely.
From the recent pictures they showed of Diane on the documentary, you can see the puffy face that's a major giveaway of alcoholism, too.
So incredibly sad. I remember how the Hance family wanted nothing to do with the documentary and how Diane’s family was in denial but imagine being in either of those positions, I can’t blame the denial. Especially when grieving. I have to remind myself that although it’s clear she didn’t have a stroke
I can’t imagine someone having that level of addiction going completely unnoticed by family members, but maybe they thought she was getting better? It’s hard to do, but people in my family that can’t prioritize my children over alcohol don’t get to be alone with them.
You'd be surprised the number of people that drink daily and seem completely fine. Constantly walking that fine line between drinking enough to keep from getting sick but not enough to get completely hammered.
Functioning alcoholics. There are several in my family. Just because they can drink and seem ok doesn’t mean they are ok. I’ve had several conversations with my mother that she doesn’t remember because she was drinking but she didn’t seem impaired. These folks also overestimate their tolerance and do stupid shit.
I used to be one. It’s frightening.
How did you stop?
Not the person you responded to, but I can tell you how I got sober. For context, I have CPTSD and I self medicated with alcohol (it didn't help that addiction is a serious issue with several close family members, so my risk factor for alcoholism was already prominent). At some point and after many cringeworthy moments, I realized that I had a serious problem. The thing that I thought I needed to help me cope with day to day life, was the very thing that would likely kill me or see me hurting someone else. There were many failed attempts at sobriety but it always ended with me blackout drunk and hating myself more and more. I wasn't really living my life; I was just biding my time until the next drink. I finally hit rock bottom and had to come to terms with where my life was at. If I wanted to die, I could continue drinking. If I wanted to live, I had to stop drinking. I accepted that there was nobody else that could do this for me and that I needed to hold myself accountable for my own actions. I was terrified of the withdrawal period but accepted that I had to endure it to find my way back to myself again. I kept myself very busy during times that I would have typically been drinking. Visiting with family and friends, where I put all my focus into the moment before me. It wasn't easy. I literally had to retrain my brain. When I'd think about drinking, I'd find something worthwhile to do instead. Slowly, I just stopped thinking about alcohol fulltime and began to feel human again. It's been years now and I'm still sober. There has definitely been temptation and near relapses but with willpower and sheer determination, I'm here. When I think about drinking now, I just have to remind myself that it's not something I can manage without painful consequences. It sucks during social gatherings sometimes but even that gets easier with time. It's a deliberate choice that you will have to keep making every single day for the rest of your life. When you think you're "good now" and might be able to let down your guard, you're actually just in jeopardy of endangering yourself again. So, you keep at it. Something else that always helps keep me on track is that if I drank, I'd have to hide it from every single person in my life. If you have to hide anything, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. I do have loved ones that benefitted from 12 step groups. It just wasn't the best path for me.
Proud of you. <3
thank you so much for this comment. i am exactly in the position you were the moment you realized it was time to stop, except i am suicidal, helpless and scared i wont be able to get sober by myself. i hope i can learn from your story
I was absolutely suicidal, at that point in my life. I was using the alcohol to cope with a tremendous amount of pain, fear and hopelessness. It wasn't a pretty moment for me and there were so many times that I almost just gave in or even checked out. I couldn't let that be my story, though. There's no dignity in dying a drunk. One of my family members would have either discovered my dead body and the shock of that would absolutely put them into a psych ward or turning into what I had let myself become. OR they would have had to be the one to identify my corpse, all waxy and bloated looking...reeking of cheap vodka and probably bodily fluids. There would only be pain and so much disappointment at the memory of me. And that's just... not what anyone deserves. Every single one of us deserves dignity and peace. You are not helpless. You are still here. You're digging through old reddit posts looking for anything to pull you through this moment in your life that has you down on your knees. That is you holding onto hope. You are still in this fight. It's not over unless you want it to be. You are your most powerful weapon. If you were capable of destroying something that you once loved, then you are also just as capable of building it back again. You are going to rebuild it so that it is not only stronger but also so much more beautiful than it ever was before. Have you ever seen a piece of Kintsugi pottery? It's this Japanese art process of mending broken pottery by filling in the cracks with gold. Everything is fused back together to make this authentic and stunning piece of art that is far more valuable than what it was before the piece was ever broken. That's you, right now. You are repairing yourself and every piece that you have lost will be filled in with intention and careful consideration. It's going to take time and you will have to be gentle and kind to yourself. You didn't get this way overnight. You won't get better in a day. You deserve your own grace right now. Start making a list of everything you want your life to be and then start making side lists of how to achieve every single one of those things. Intention. Everything you do should be done with the specific intention to do exactly that. If something doesn't come out the way you want the first time, that's okay. Just learn from what didn't work and try again. The only way you are going to learn to love yourself is to learn who you really are. Pick up a hobby, start doing some volunteer work, listen to comedy specials and podcasts to make you smile, tell yourself about 3 things you're good at for every 1 thing your brain tries to remind you that you suck at, start talking more to the people that are in your life, look into therapy and start cutting out the unhealthy habits that are enabling you to stay stuck. You're a lot of things that you don't even know yet, but not one of them includes... helpless, hopeless, undeserving or done.
Thank you for this. Needed it.
You’re an inspiration.
Winston Churchill drank a 5th of gin every day. Every. Day.
The husband didn’t notice because he didn’t want to. Diane shouldered the majority of the financial and household burdens. He is basically a man child.
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He’s trash because she had more income? Okay
He's trash because of how he is as a person. Just look for what he has said about the surviving child, Bryan.
What has he said?
I agree. And in the documentary he was like pissed basically that he had to take care of his son afterwards. I’m sure he she was not getting the help that she needed because it seems like she ran everything in the household and I can see how that would lead her to drink
He comes across as such a douche in that documentary. I really hope his son has gotten a lot of therapy and support.
>eyes My uncle was an alcoholic in the traditional sense - drank heavily, unable to control it and everyone knew it. His wife was a functional one though - drank almost as much as he did, was drunk just a frequently and no one knew it for a very very long time (I worked with her for a while). And to everyone outside the family, it appeared she was the glue keeping the family together -- to be fair, I think she was.
Functional alcoholics and addicts can be very good at hiding it even from family members.
Weren't there empty vodka bottles in the car though? How can they deny those on top of all the other evidence?
Indeed there were. They just did not want to believe that Diane would do what she did, so they deny it, probably out of embarrassment or anger
The husband gives off major douche vibes and it only gets worse when he opens his mouth. He comes across as the type of husband who helped exactly zero percent of the time and purposely ignores the fact that his wife is overwhelmed. I’ve never been able to make sense of this tragedy but one thing is for sure—Aunt Diane was absolutely trashed on that drive. My current theory is she had an opioid addiction, was having trouble getting her hands on more pain pills, so she tried to self medicate through her withdrawal. Maybe took an edible and didn’t realize how slow and hard it would hit. Once it did hit it’s game over because of the vodka.
They found a ton of vodka in her stomach and her BAC was more than 2x the legal limit. She may have been self medicating, but there’s little doubt that she was absolutely drunk out of her mind.
Oh I completely agree. She was without a doubt extremely, extremely intoxicated.
Legal limit can mean drastically different things if you’re an alcohol abuser (which I am) My question is, we know she was most likely abusing a substance, but what type and how much? I’m a binger, if I’m drinking I don’t plan to move much for the next 18 hours. If she was habitual or high functioning the edible could have messed her up, if she wasn’t used to them and didn’t know how she would be effected and had an anxiety reaction her erratic driving would make way more sense. If she was habitual and drunk more than she was used to or a different liquor of choice, or a mix of her drink of choice and something on the side, she could have wanted to keep up appearances. Your opinion on the opioids is in the same vein. Yeah there’s something wrong with Aunt Diane, but it’s been wrong for a while and it’s not a tooth ache. Those kids in the car must have been terrified, and poor Bastardis.
I’m really curious where she got the weed from. Did they ever say in the documentary? Maybe her husband didn’t know about that and he was getting it for her and maybe that’s partially why he didn’t want to admit that she was messed up because he influence that? Just spit balling I’m just really curious if she got it from a friend or someone in the family Or just a random acquaintance
She smoked weed as well. Getting cross faded, when you're not accustomed to it, is a fast track to blacking out. The way the driver on the off ramps describes her face sounds like prime time cross faded blackout.
That’s a very good theory!
Thank you! This case has bothered me from day one. It’s just so incredibly senseless and sad. I’ll always wonder what Diane was thinking that day.
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Her brother begged her to stay where she was and was frantically searching for her and his children. Why didn’t she just listen?! She’s literally puking her guts out on the side of the road. It’s just so ridiculously senseless.
I remember the doc on HBO. Very sad and the husband is complete denial. He's a real POS because he tried to sue everyone he could, and that includes the brother of the deceased children because it was his truck. Disgusting. His main defense was that she was suffering from a tooth abscess. Smh
Stephen King wrote a very good, very poignant short story inspired by this incident(though the internal monologue of the driver is obviously his imagination). It is called “Herman Wouk is Still Alive”, and I imagine many of the morbid folks of this sub(not an insult) would enjoy it.
I've read it several times. It's really good. But I love everything Stephen King has written. I'd absolutely love to meet him and pick his brain. He fascinates me.
I searched for and read it after reading your comment and it is one of the best things I have read in a long time. It sticks with you. Wow
King is a recovering alcoholic himself, it’s one of the recurring motifs of his books. He’s from New England too (other side but still) so it probably hit home for him.
Plus he was run over. Can't remember if the driver was drinking, but I do know he was trying to stop his dog from getting into some groceries and not focused.
Here's the link to the short story https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/herman-wouk-is-still-alive/308451/
Paywall 😭
I almost died in a wrong way crash myself…narrowly escaped. Was driving from New York to a Boston on 95 North in CT near exit 58…won’t ever forget that mile marker. It was lightly raining at 11pm on a Sunday night. Very little cars on the road. I was in the left lane passing a car to my right as we approached a small hill, lights came over the horizon. I didn’t think much of it as on the highway at night you see lights coming at you all the time…well despite my inability to detect those lights were in my lane and having no conscious thought of the danger, I moved over out of the passing lane and right as I crossed the dotted white the car was past me…it all happened so quick. It took a min to process it as the driver was doing over 100mph and myself atleast 70 so combined speed made it extremely hard to compute how fast the car was coming…well I escaped with my life but the car behind me, a father getting out of work late going home, was killed. The man driving on the wrong side of the highway died as well, and was fleeing police after stealing the car…that stretch of highway has a crash every year almost due to a lot of car jacking eluding police using the method of going the wrong way…. I’ve been sickened by the thought of what happened that night but grateful my subconscious decision making did what I needed to do so I could survive
The awareness of having been *this close* has a profound effect. I’m glad you’re here but also understand the mixed feeling about it you might have. It’s all understandable. Take care.
Yeah I thought about it for a while. It brought me into a deeper level of mindfulness
I had two wrong-way encounters on my old commute. One was a silver Toyota Corolla barreling at me northbound in the southbound lanes of 495 in MA. I moved from the left lane to the middle and the car blew past me, got hard on the brakes and did a u-turn. Luckily there was next to no traffic due to the weather. Second was getting off the exit for my old workplace. I’m coming down the off-ramp and here comes a Honda Fit driving at me, driver gesturing at me wildly and flashing her lights. I stop and she stops, visibly pissed. I honked at her and pointed to my left where cars were getting on the highway the correct way. She gives me a sheepish look, lets me by then u-turns and pulls up behind me. Scary how people mess up something so simple.
Yeah it is, I'm glad you're OK though...gotta watch out for those massholes ha ha i joke tho... obvious CT is worse lol
My God
wow. good post. how sad.
Thank you, it's a super sad case. Could've so easily been avoided, drunk driving is never the way.
it’s so frustrating how her family refuses to believe the truth.
There is a special place in hell for this monster that killed all those innocent kids and people. Makes me sick
I cannot fathom how those parents that lost their three girls managed to live on. I don’t think I’d last five minutes with that pain before I ended it. My god it’s horrible.
Their mom wrote a book about how they managed to survive it. Later on they ended up having another child.
IIRC (it's been a few years since I've read her book), the mom (Jackie Hance) had her tubes tied after their third daughter was born, so was wondering if it was even possible to get pregnant again, not to mention the costs. But the fertility clinic she went to completely comped everything once they realized who she was. It was successful after a few rounds and they had another little girl, and the name they gave her had little nods to her other 3 sisters. Thought that whole situation was sweet (or as 'sweet' as something awful like this can be).
This is the case that really gets me, drunk off her ass. RIP to the children and adults she killed. My personal belief is she was blind drunk, but still desperately trying to make everything ok to preserve her reputation.
"There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane" for those wondering about the documentary being mentioned.
“Dear Zachary” and this movie make for a double matinee that will cause any girl to wonder what she’s doing with you.
Dear Zachary absolutely broke me.
Me too. I have trouble holding back tears when merely explaining that movie to someone.
Guy Bastardi is an awesome name
I’m not disputing that Diane was drunk I just have a couple of questions. Does anyone know if she had liver damage from long term Alcoholism or was this more a binge? I know she was good at hiding her drinking (just based on that day where she’s not seen drinking but was drunk) but I’ve wondered also what her mood was that morning after camping? Was she raging because she’d been left with the kids again? I’ve read that she took on a lot and I didn’t get the impression that her husband was very helpful. I wonder if she snapped.
liver damage isn't always a guaranteed side effect of long term alcoholism. my grandpa's liver made it out unscathed even though he was a raging alcoholic until a stroke in his early 60s. he got type 2 diabetes from it too. as for her mindframe, i do recall in the documentary her sister in law said diane and her husband had been arguing loudly a couple hours before she left with all the kids, and didn't seem particularly happy about it, but didnt seem angry or extremely upset.
That is one thing that’s always confused me…. If she was a “functioning alcoholic” you’d think she’d known better than to get absolutely slammed before driving those children home. Someone said opiate addiction and possibly couldn’t find pills, so self medicated with alcohol - that makes the most sense to me.
functioning alcholism doesn't necessarily mean they have unimpaired, rational thought processes, more so that they're able to carry on their day normally *enough* to where they come off as a functioning person. but their world still revolves around their addiction, so they will plan for it. this can manifest in situations where an alcoholic tries to limit their alcohol intake to get them through whatever they're doing without the withdrawl, and before the alcohol starts to majorly affect them — which is exactly what i believe diane was trying to do, but unfortunately she was high as a kite. diane's THC levels were high enough that it would've sped up impairment, leading to less awareness of how much she was drinking overall. it's possible she intended to dilute her alcohol with the orange juice she got from mcdonalds knowing it would slow the process a little, but all logic went out the window once the alcohol and THC suddenly hit her like a brick wall. overall her actions were of course stupid, disgustingly reckless, insanely selfish, horribly negligent and tragically deadly, but certainly not out of the realm of a functioning alcoholic's mindframe.
“Alcohol and THC suddenly hit her like a brick wall” I think this is what actually happened. I had a bad experience with both years ago, fortunately I wasn’t driving at the time.
They magnify each others effect when taken together.
Sure does. I learnt that the hard way.
I also think it’s the most likely She drank her normal amount, where she was drunk but her “normal drunk,” so she didn’t really think about crossing the line with a few extra drinks. She was on vacation after all, when you’re on vacation it’s not abuse it’s just having fun. You make excuses. You venture outside your comfort zone, mix some stuff, enough different stuff to loose track compared to what you’re used to drinking. In the morning, maybe she was trying to fight off a hangover. Took a few more nips, just enough to wet the tongue. Maybe thought the edible would “calm her nerves,” less herky jerky driving, more relaxed, people would just think she was tired. Slow culmination of a bunch of little things. An NTSB report of what dominos had to call, but all the dominos were into Aunt Diane’s mouth.
This is it. Cross fading is the real culprit.
Fixating on the alcohol is missing the bigger picture. She also smoked weed. Cross fading when you don't have a tolerance for it blacks you out almost immediately. I believe the husband said she had smoked that day. Even if she drank just a little bit it could have disastrous results.
just a depressing story all around. addiction secrecy, senseless deaths of innocent people, a child left permanently disabled, families ruined for life, insanely heavy denial of the facts.. it all sucks. such a preventable tragedy. i wish diane couldve gotten the help she needed. RIP to all the victims.
Its crazy to me that anyone can get so blackout drunk and high as to pull off getting into a vehicle in the first place. So much life wasted for one dumbass decision, having that much and deciding to drive. That's incredibly sad.
I found this post in the “Best of Craigslist” section a few years ago. Every once in awhile I’ll go back and read it again. I wonder if the man who wrote it is doing okay today. [I saw that crash on the Taconic last Sunday](https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/1306619502.html)
That’s so incredibly sad. I guess we sometimes overlook how impacted everyone who witnesses something like this would be. And how it would linger with them forever.
There was an incredible post that detailed what withdrawal was like and how Diane suffered all the symptoms from it. It was from a guy who went through something similar and I wish I could find it
The documentary still haunts me.
I can’t imagine the horror the Hance family went through, their friend killing all 3 of their children. There’s no forgiveness for some acts. 😞
Sister, not friend.
And then being sued by Diane’s POS husband because it was the Hance father’s truck.
Wow I’ve never seen a picture of the aftermath with Diane in it. So sad
I remember that documentary- very sad for all involved
Those poor kids, including her son. That whole family, united both in blood and tragedy.
I watched the documentary and saw that at one point she was prescribed Ambien. I wonder if she was still taking it and perhaps accidentally took it that morning. Or maybe she was abusing it? I took Ambien at a low, prescribed dose and would still have to lock myself in and my phone up at night because I would do things and not remember. I'd wake up in a different bed, have conversations I didn't remember. I got off of it as quickly as I could, even though it meant changing out my medication regimen entirely. She still drank and smoked when she shouldn't have, but maybe that would explain the excess. I just can't see someone who was so skilled at hiding it and controlling it for so long randomly going off the rails one day without any prior incidents. I'm sure it does happen, though. I cringed when they kept saying "she's not a drunk, she loved her kids." As someone who watched someone near and dear to me change into an entirely different person (and ultimately die) due to addiction, both can be true. My loved one made horrible, stupid, selfish decisions when he was in active addiction. But the core of who he was as a person was caring, empathetic and generous. Addiction is a dangerous thing.
There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane is one of the most unsettling documentaries I’ve ever seen.
Weird details stuck with me. They found her cell phone sitting on the guardrail where she had placed it sometime after her last call, mid-ride. That she abandoned it like that and drove off without it, like burning a bridge.
I'm not sure she didn't intentionally kill herself and those kids. I just finished watching the documentary again for the first time in years and re-watching it, hearing how she was pin straight on that road even though she was wasted, I just wonder if it was intentional. How fucking horrible. A senseless tragedy.
Saw this documentary on Showtime. Such a sad story...
HBO
I think she was an alcoholic and smoker but jo one knew. I've always had a theory Diane's husband and the sister in law glued to his side through the documentary where having an affair and Diane found out the night before or the morning. Then she completely snapped mentally before she left her phone behind and got so drunk and high that she blacked Out, forgot she had innocent kids with her and killed herself.
I completely agree! I know they had been through a tragedy but they just had such a weird dynamic through the documentary. Like she was basically taking care of his kid and doing everything for him around the house. Super weird. Maybe that’s why they were in such denial because they don’t want to believe that they could’ve been the cause of Diane’s drinking and smoking that morning. I believe that she was probably an alcoholic but if she found out about an affair that could’ve made her drink more than normal
I've re-watched the documentary tonight and hearing witnesses say that she was pin straight driving on that road even though she was wasted makes me think her death was intentional. But how horrid to take all those innocent children with her. Also, seeing the recent photos of her they showed during the film, she has what I call the alcoholic face, it's just so puffy which is a sign. My spouse at one point was a heavy drinker and all our photos from that time his face is puffy like that, too. It's a dead giveaway now when I know to look for it.
Ohh that’s a good point! She definitely has that alcoholic puffy face look. I’m leaning towards intentional as well. I think she got in a fight with her husband in the morning and decided to drink and smoke more than she normally did but then realized how messed up she was and was terrified of being found out and so maybe she felt like suicide was the only way out? I know she had a phone call with another one in the family when she was pulled to the side until maybe she was worried that they could tell how drunk she was and she knew that Family would have been furious.I feel like it was just a combination of a few different things. Regardless this documentary still makes me so uncomfortable every time I watch it it’s awful.
Wonderful post; extremely sad story. I just wanted to say it's good to see you back :)
Oh damn, this was in my home town, I totally forgot about it until now.
I think about this case way more often than I probably should, but I hadn’t seen an article about it in so long I was beginning to think I made it up.
I’ll forever be haunted by how this all panned out and I watched the doc on it “Somethings Wrong with Aunt Diane.” Just awful.
Jesus this is sad
what is photo 9? sorry, i can't tell
I'm pretty sure it's the back of the van where the kids were riding
1 out of every 5 drivers around you on the road at ANY GIVEN TIME are impaired by something. They rarely get caught unless they cause an accident. It's awful.
I live close to the neighborhood where the family lived. There is a foundation in their name called the Hance Family Foundation. It was such a sad story and everyone in the neighborhood who knew them was in shocked. [The Hance Family Foundation](https://www.hancefamilyfoundation.org/)
4 kids dying in 1 crash is painful
They cant collect life insurance if shes at fault for a multiple fatality dd case.
Just watched this documentary on HBO: the immediate family is in clear denial and I would not be the least bit surprised that the husband is omitting some truths about her personality (lying?). You can go on about addiction and keeping it secret from family and being an active high functioning member of society which sure is totally possible, but from watching the doc, I don’t buy it. He knew. I don’t believe it was intentional but what I would like to know or see is how/where she got on that off-ramp going the wrong way. - is it clearly marked wrong way? How did she turn onto it, and the moment she did turn was there honking and cars in the way? From the details provided, she was going the complete opposite direction of home. And if she pulled over for some amount of time at the toll booth, no cops or port authority took notice? Hopefully the family finds a way to move on and the surviving child leads a full life.
What's wrong with aunt Diane is a great documentary about this case. So sad.
Link to the documentary on YouTube: [There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane](https://youtu.be/hMobIigNaEg)
I watched this for the first time last night. So so much denial. The heart will truly shield the body from terrible pain. I mean, all that testing with the same results. And they still just couldn’t accept it. Very sad.
What gets me is the documentary crew literally brought in an autopsy expert and Diane’s husband and sister in law STILL didn’t believe it
I read the book and it was so heartbreaking
Which book?
“I’ll see you again” written by the mother Jackie Hance
The little girl :( some times god doesn’t look over those who are innocent
I don't know much about this case, but I wonder if this could be a non diagnosed case of [ABS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-brewery_syndrome) (auto brewery syndrome). She is a very strong candidate. She had diabetes and had just ate a high carboidrate meal. I wonder if she was on antibiotics too some days before. Did somebody investigate into it at the time? I'm not sure if it can be diagnosed post mortem.
perhaps educate/familiarize yourself first before you start “wondering”
She also had a shit ton of alcohol in her stomach and THC....so not ABS.Just a POS driving while drunk and high af.
Some women don’t deserve to be mothers..
Are there any other public autopsy reports or just Diane’s?
I feel so bad for the Hance’s. Loosing all three of their beautiful babies at the same time.
Wait so the driver survived? Who’s body is that?
No the driver did not survive. Those two pics of a dead woman is her, Diane the driver.
No the driver died. That's her.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I traveled that road pretty frequently back then, and it is pretty easy to end up going to wrong way.
I remb this so sad 😭
Who is that woman on the ground?
Diane, the driver.
Oh wow. It doesn’t look anything like her.
There was recently a crash that killed 7 people near my house, nothing about it on the news
Currently watching the documentary on this. (Its on YouTube if anyone would like a source.)
I remember this. It was such a tragedy.
I hope the family of the truly innocent people sued her estate into the ground.
This is so sad. I remember when this happened, and then seeing then seeing the documentary. This one still difficult. I feel awful for everyone involved because it just seemed like on one hand she had a medical emergency and so many people accused her of being this horrible human. But then on the other hand if she was purposefully drunk/wrecked it’s just awful all around.
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It's because you are an immature child. Maybe one day you'll grow up.
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