Anbesol to Blame for Wrong-Way Crash: Lawyer

The explanations just keep coming. A lawyer for the man whose drunk wife drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway and caused a crash that killed eight people continues to theorize about why Diane Schuler's blood alcohol level was so high.

And his latest explanation borders on the absurd.

Lawyer Dominic Barbara now says Anbesol -- an over-the-counter medication used to ease minor tooth and gum pain -- is to blame for the crash, reports The New York Post.

"She took Anbesol for her toothache, that's what caused it," Barbara claimed, arguing that the drug causes false positives on alcohol tests. "Look it up on the Web!"

Diane Schuler's autopsy revealed she had six grams of undigested alcohol in her stomach and her blood alcohol level was 0.19 -- the equivalent of 10 shots of vodka She used marijuana as soon as 15 minutes before the crash that killed her daughter, nieces and three men in another car.

Both Daniel Schuler and his attorney have decried allegations Diane drank.

"There was no alcohol abuse. There's no way in the world she's an alcoholic," Barbara said.

There's also no way Anbesol caused Schuler's blood alcohol level to skyrocket to 0.19, a toxicology expert says. While the drug does contain a small amount of alcohol, Michael Baden says it's not the same kind you'd find in vodka and hard liquor.     

"The alcohol in the mixture she allegedly took for her tooth would be benzyl," Baden, former chief medical examiner for New York City, told the Post. "The toxicology reports are straightforward, and it would be extremely unlikely that ethyl alcohol would be improperly identified."

A spokesman for Anbesol manufacturer Wyeth confirmed the drug contains small amounts of benzyl alcohol, but said it dissolves immediately after application.

An attorney for the Bastardis, the family of the men who were killed when Schuler plowed head-on into their SUV, says Barbara's latest explanation is ridiculous.

"Who ingests the equivalent of 10 shots of vodka in the form of Anbesol? It's a little dot you put on your tooth. That's absurd," lawyer Irving Anolik told the Post.

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