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Virginia Legal News

Suit Filed in Wrong-Way Crash That Left Eight Dead


Posted on Dec 14, 2009

This summer, eight people died after a minivan traveled the wrong-way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York.  Diane Schuler, 36, was driving a minivan carrying her five-year-old son, her two-year old daughter, and their three cousins.  She headed onto the parkway by entering an exit ramp; she continued to drive the wrong way for 1.7 miles as oncoming cars swerved to avoid her.  Eventually, a SUV collided with the minivan; Michael Bastardi, his son Guy, and family friend Daniel Longo all died in the wreck.  Diane Schuler and four of the children she was carrying also died; the only survivor was Schuler’s five-year-old son, who is still recovering.  After hitting the SUV, the minivan flew out of control and hit another SUV, the driver and passenger of which received minor injuries.  Investigators found a shattered vodka bottle on the floor of the minivan, and said that Schuler had the equivalent of ten shots of liquor in her system and was high on marijuana.

The Bastardi family has now filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in Westchester County against the estate of Diane Schuler.  The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for what it refers to as “wanton, willful and reckless” conduct on the part of Ms. Schuler. 
 

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