Cops: Woman in crash may have been driving erratically

Hours before a wrong-way collision killed eight people on the Taconic State Parkway, a woman who police believe was Diane Schuler was seen driving "in an aggressive, erratic manner" on two upstate highways, authorities said Monday.

Starting about three hours before the July 26 accident, witnesses have told police, a red Ford minivan was weaving in and out of traffic and straddling two lanes, with the driver honking her horn and flashing high beams on Route 17 and the New York State Thruway.

-Click to see the latest photos from the Taconic crash tragedy

According to State Police Lt. Dominick Chiumento, at one point, the woman drove the minivan into the Ramapo service area and swerved across a grassy median. Another witness said she tried to pass him on the highway shoulder.

The erratic driving presented another clue in the frustrating mystery of why Schuler drove the Ford Windstar - filled with her two young children and three nieces - into oncoming northbound traffic on the Taconic later that afternoon, causing a head-on collision with a sport utility vehicle.

Although none of the witnesses wrote down a plate number, Chiumento said police are confident the driver they described was Schuler. "They described the vehicle and the occupants within the time frame she left the campground," Chiumento said. "It fits."

The dead include Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter, her nieces and three Yonkers men in the SUV. Her son, Bryan, 5, was the sole survivor of the collision. The last funeral for the victims was held Monday, as Daniel Longo, 73, of Yonkers, was laid to rest.

Schuler, a manager at Cablevision, which owns Newsday, left the Hunter Lake Campground at about 9:30 a.m. Her husband, Daniel, left at the same time, bound for a fishing trip, and he has told police his wife seemed fine.

She stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's in Liberty, N.Y., about 10 miles south of the campground and about 100 miles northwest of New York City. Joe Miranda, a McDonald's employee there, said he was "not at liberty to discuss" Schuler's visit.

She then headed southeast on Route 17 and the Thruway, where police said a woman fitting her description was spotted driving aggressively by multiple witnesses, police said.

Her family did not learn anything was wrong until 1:02 p.m., when she called her brother, Warren Hance of Floral Park, the father of her three nieces, and said she wasn't feeling well and was having trouble seeing.

Police have yet to find a witness who saw Schuler between the time she left the pull-off and 1:35 p.m., when the crash occurred. Police asked anyone who may have seen her driving on July 26 to call 914-769-2600.

Results from autopsy toxicology tests are expected Wednesday. State police are reconstructing the accident.

-Click to see the latest photos from the Taconic crash tragedy