By now we’ve all heard about Diane Schuler who caused an accident resulting the deaths of seven people besides herself on the Taconic Parkway in Westchester County, NY, reportedly by consuming Absolut vodka and marijuana while driving. Her blood alcohol level showed she had the equivalent of 10 shots of 80 proof liquor – an ounce short of a pint of vodka. And, high levels of marijuana, smoked within 15 minutes of the crash. And this was done by someone who no one is admitting known having had a problem. Yeah, right.
Last Sunday on the TV show 60 Minutes there was a story DWI: Is It Murder? which focused in part on the murder conviction of the wrong-way drunk driver who smashed his pickup truck into a limo returning home from a wedding, killing the limo driver and the wedding’s seven-year-old flower girl. The driver was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison. It was reported that he had no previous trouble with the law. It was proven that by drinking and driving he had depraved indifference to human life. Somehow that sentence seemed out of whack, even though drunkenness is not an excuse.
This man left a party and drove off, not intending to cause loss of human life any more than a sober cell phone user, a sober drowsy driver, a sober map reader, a sober text messager, or a sober senior citizen with declining driving skills. But doesn’t alcohol make you think that you can drive just fine? There was a show on TV a while back documenting a professional driver on a closed driving track who was given one drunk after another and then driving an obstacle course – and before each attempt he was sure he could do it with no problem – and each time he did worse than before.
But let’s get back to Ms Schuler – getting into a car, with children, some not even her own, then first starting to drink and smoke marijuana. OK, that’s murder. And let’s forget about that monument at the campground.