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The Taconic Parkway Crash
Nov. 20th, 2009 02:36 pmThere's a fascinating article in New York magazine this week--I read on Monday and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's about that horrific crash on the Taconic Parkway that happened this summer, the one where 8 people, including 4 kids, were killed. What happened was a woman, Diane Schuler, with her daughter, son and three nieces in the car, went the wrong way down the Taconic Parkway--she went up an exit ramp and pulled into the inside breakdown lane and drove that way for about two miles until she slammed into an SUV going the other (correct) way. Everyone in her vehicle, except her son, was killed, and all three passengers in the SUV were also killed.
I found that sentence early in the article, "passing drivers said she stared straight ahead, her expression serene and oblivious, her hands at ten and two on the steering wheel" haunting. In fact it took me so, that I started doing research to see how the author had learned that--I can't find that detail, I may have to email him directly. I'd only barely heard of the story before I read the article (with no TV, I miss a lot of news, sadly) and my first exposure to it was with the article. I had a lot of very mixed feelings after reading it and after my research I'm even more engaged. The timeline in the article is eerie. She and her husband and other family members had gone camping and she left with all those kids around 9:30 am and stopped at a McDonald's for coffee and OJ, and I guess the kids ate there (this is not only from the article but from what else I've read). Around 12 noon, her sister-in-law Jackie (mother of three of the girls in the car) calls Diane's cell and they have a normal conversation, no apparent slurring or impairment. However just an hour later one of the nieces calls her dad, Jackie's husband Warren--there's something wrong with her aunt and they can hear kids crying in the background. The dad speaks to Diane who's disoriented and slurring. He tells her to stay put, he's coming to get her but she ends the call. And he calls back--again and again and again, as he's driving to try to find her, but does not call 911. She starts driving again and at some point during all this, witnesses apparently saw her at the side of the road, looking as though she were vomiting.
Those poor, terrified children. Oh man. That just makes my heart hurt. Those little girls--the oldest, 9 years old Emma, trying to handle this situation she knew was bad, trying to keep her sisters and cousins safe, doing all the right things by calling dad and telling him the signs where they were, and none of it helped. Because when they did an autopsy on Diane, she had an enormous amount of alcohol in her, 10 shots' worth, plus evidence that she'd been smoking pot within the hour. More than that, she had raw alcohol, indigested alcohol, in her stomach--so she'd kept on drinking even after she must've known she was hammered. What the hell? What could possibly explain that? How does she go from coherent and together at 12 to a complete mess an hour later? What the hell happened? Did she get some kind of bad news, did she think of something or did the alcohol act differently on her that day for some reason? I just don't get what would impel her to drink such an enormous amount when she had 5 kids in the car, especially when she'd never even come close to slipping like this before (had never shown up drunk to a PTA meeting or work or whatever).
( Denial )
( 'This becomes a man you can't hate enough.' Really? )
"They should come forward, come clean," says Mike, and says that would be enough. “And we would feel better. We would."
I just don't know if I agree with that. I think right now nothing will make them feel better. I just don't think they're there yet. Maybe they never will be.
One thing that does sit wrong with me--I'm always uncomfortable when the spouse of the primary victim seems more invested in vengeance than the actual injured party. I think Jeanne Bastardi should be supporting her husband, not whipping him into greater heights of anger. He can obviously speak for himself. I can't imagine she's much solace to him, because she's just reinforcing his anger and hatred.
( Her world is getting smaller... )
I hope the Bastardis, Danny and his son, and Warren and his wife find some peace. I really pray for that.
I found that sentence early in the article, "passing drivers said she stared straight ahead, her expression serene and oblivious, her hands at ten and two on the steering wheel" haunting. In fact it took me so, that I started doing research to see how the author had learned that--I can't find that detail, I may have to email him directly. I'd only barely heard of the story before I read the article (with no TV, I miss a lot of news, sadly) and my first exposure to it was with the article. I had a lot of very mixed feelings after reading it and after my research I'm even more engaged. The timeline in the article is eerie. She and her husband and other family members had gone camping and she left with all those kids around 9:30 am and stopped at a McDonald's for coffee and OJ, and I guess the kids ate there (this is not only from the article but from what else I've read). Around 12 noon, her sister-in-law Jackie (mother of three of the girls in the car) calls Diane's cell and they have a normal conversation, no apparent slurring or impairment. However just an hour later one of the nieces calls her dad, Jackie's husband Warren--there's something wrong with her aunt and they can hear kids crying in the background. The dad speaks to Diane who's disoriented and slurring. He tells her to stay put, he's coming to get her but she ends the call. And he calls back--again and again and again, as he's driving to try to find her, but does not call 911. She starts driving again and at some point during all this, witnesses apparently saw her at the side of the road, looking as though she were vomiting.
Those poor, terrified children. Oh man. That just makes my heart hurt. Those little girls--the oldest, 9 years old Emma, trying to handle this situation she knew was bad, trying to keep her sisters and cousins safe, doing all the right things by calling dad and telling him the signs where they were, and none of it helped. Because when they did an autopsy on Diane, she had an enormous amount of alcohol in her, 10 shots' worth, plus evidence that she'd been smoking pot within the hour. More than that, she had raw alcohol, indigested alcohol, in her stomach--so she'd kept on drinking even after she must've known she was hammered. What the hell? What could possibly explain that? How does she go from coherent and together at 12 to a complete mess an hour later? What the hell happened? Did she get some kind of bad news, did she think of something or did the alcohol act differently on her that day for some reason? I just don't get what would impel her to drink such an enormous amount when she had 5 kids in the car, especially when she'd never even come close to slipping like this before (had never shown up drunk to a PTA meeting or work or whatever).
( Denial )
( 'This becomes a man you can't hate enough.' Really? )
"They should come forward, come clean," says Mike, and says that would be enough. “And we would feel better. We would."
I just don't know if I agree with that. I think right now nothing will make them feel better. I just don't think they're there yet. Maybe they never will be.
One thing that does sit wrong with me--I'm always uncomfortable when the spouse of the primary victim seems more invested in vengeance than the actual injured party. I think Jeanne Bastardi should be supporting her husband, not whipping him into greater heights of anger. He can obviously speak for himself. I can't imagine she's much solace to him, because she's just reinforcing his anger and hatred.
( Her world is getting smaller... )
I hope the Bastardis, Danny and his son, and Warren and his wife find some peace. I really pray for that.
