Projo Cars Blog

Diane Schuler's husband Daniel's continues to deny she was drunk when she drove two miles in the wrong direction on New York's Taconic State Parkway late last month.

The bizarre episode ended when she slammed her minivan head on into another vehicle, killing herself and seven others including four children.

The N.Y. State Police found she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent or the equivalent of 10 shots of vodka. An open bottle of vodka was found in the car. They also found high levels of the chemical THC, which is found in marijuana.

If the findings are correct, 5-foot 2-inch Diane Schuler was beyond drunk. I am six feet and 200 pounds and I cannot imagine the effects from drinking that amount of alcohol in a matter of hours.

While Daniel Schuler has not commented on the THC finding, he insists his wife was not an alcoholic and is seeking to have her body exhumed for further tests.

His refusal to accept the findings of the state police may seem as bizarre as the accident itself. I suppose there is the chance that he is right, but I cannot imagine the NYSP not being absolutely sure in such a high-profile case.

Is he thus refusing to face the responsibility of his wife being a drunk? Or did he genuinely not know about her drinking?

The second possibility was addressed in a recent On Point show on National Public Radio, "Why Women Drink."

Whether the show was prompted by the Schuler accident, I do not know, but it threw light on the problem of the closet alcoholic who appears to be a social drinker but who also drinks in private. Indeed, many closet alcoholics get a buzz going in secret before joining others and having a public drink.

When they proceed to fall down after a couple of glasses of wine, they earn the reputation of not being able to hold their drink. No one knows about the two or three shots of liquor that preceded the wine.

So it might have been for Daniel Schuler. He might not have known that his wife had a serious drinking problem because she kept it under wraps. And even if he had asked her, she would probably have denied it.

I used to work for a wire service and a number of the old hands were alcoholics. They were all men and in complete denial about their drinking being a problem. Indeed, it was a regarded in some quarters as a badge of honor.

One in particular was renowned not only for drinking himself under the table but for being able to write a story after being scrapped up. His prose was considered to flow more poetically if he was drunk.

He went on to be the city editor at an urban newspaper, was fired for insulting a female reporter and died at a comparatively young age.

The indulgence granted him as a man is not generally granted to women. The image drunken men out on the town is tolerated, the lads having a laugh. The same image, but of drunken women, is not viewed with the same degree of tolerance.

So perhaps women more than men are forced to drink alone and in secret. And if they are smart enough and in denial of what they are really doing, even their families may not be aware of the extent of the problem.

Until it is too late.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

 Tags  Alcoholism commentary Schuler

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