Husband of Wrong-Way Crash Driver Probed

Authorities are investigating the husband of the woman who was driving a minivan the wrong way on a parkway just north of New York City when it hit an SUV head-on late last month, killing herself and seven others, sources say.

Diane Schuler, 36, is dead, along with her 2-year-old daughter, three nieces aged 5, 7 and 8 and three men in the SUV. Her 5-year-old son survived the fiery crash.

CBS station WCBS-TV in New York says it's learned that Daniel Schuler "is himself now being investigated by Suffolk County (Long Island, site of the Schuler family home) Child Protective Services" who want to know "how much Schuler knew about his wife's drinking and marijuana use the day of the crash."

CBS News Correspondent Terrell Brown says officials want to find out what Daniel Schuler knew about his wife's possible substance abuse problem and whether he could have stopped her from causing the crash.

Toxicology reports found the equivalent of ten shots of an alcoholic beverage in her body, Brown points out, and evidence of marijuana use.

Her family vigorously denies Diane Schuler abused alcohol.

"She is not an alcoholic," Daniel Schuler said at a tearful news conference this week, "and my heart is rested every night when I go to bed. Something medically had to have happened."

"There is no way she would ever jeopardize the children," Diane Schuler's sister-in-law, Joy Schuler, insisted to reporters that day.

The family says Diane Schuler was once diabetic and may have suffered a stroke.

But, authorities say, a broken vodka bottle was found in the burned minivan she was driving and the medical examiner found no sign of a fatal medical condition.

State police say Diane Schuler was fine at a fast-food restaurant an hour after starting her drive that tragic day, thus narrowing the timeline of her possible drinking binge.

Police are piecing together her journey from an upstate campground to the crash some four hours later.

They say Schuler seemed sober when she left the camp at about 9:30 a.m. on July 26, but had had more than 10 vodkas and had marijuana's main ingredient in her system by the time crash occurred.

Daniel Schuler has said he noticed nothing suspicious when he and his wife left in separate vehicles from the campground that Sunday morning. He headed home to Long Island with the family dog, and she planned to stop at a McDonald's in Liberty, N.Y., not far from the campground.

State police said Friday that, after interviewing employees at a McDonald's about 15 miles from the Hunter Lake campsite, "There was no indication of any illness or impairment during the time she was there."

Schuler left with her children in the minivan between 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., police said. The last time she was heard from was a cell phone call she made at 1:02 p.m., from a parking area south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, only a few miles from where the fatal collision took place, they said.

An investigator hired by Daniel Schuler's attorney has said that three other telephone calls were made earlier in the journey but has not revealed details of those calls. In the final phone call, Schuler's 8-year-old niece told her father that Schuler wasn't feeling well and had trouble seeing and speaking.

Daniel Schuler's attorney, Dominic Barbara, did not return several telephone calls seeking comment Friday.

Diane Schuler's autopsy found she had a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving, and a high level of the key ingredient in marijuana in her system when she crashed.

Several relatives reacted with shock to the revelation that the woman they said was a trustworthy, responsible mother and aunt would have been severely intoxicated.

Police said Wednesday that no criminal charges were planned, but relatives of the three Yonkers men killed in the SUV have questioned how Schuler's family could have been oblivious to an alcohol abuse problem and have consulted with Westchester County prosecutors.

A lawyer for relatives of two of the Yonkers men suggested charges might be possible against anyone who knew Schuler had been drinking before the crash. He said his clients also would explore a possible civil case.