Questions Linger as Family Buries Wrong-Way Crash Victims

Authorities still don't understand what happened to the driver

Lines of family and friends gathered at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church in Floral Park today to mourn the deaths of a woman and four children killed in a horrific crash on the Taconic State Parkway this week.

Two lines of bagpipes played as five silver hearses pulled up to the church about 10:45 a.m., each containing a pristine white coffin. The doors of the church opened simultaneously as pallbearers brought the caskets into the sanctuary.  Family, including the father of three of the young children, expressed anguish over the loss.

"Love your children, cherish your children, kiss your children and don't ever forget,'' Warren Hance said as he broke down in sobs that set off a chain-reaction of tears throughout the church.

On Sunday afternoon, his sister, Diane Schuler, 36, was driving with her three nieces and two children, returning from a camping trip, when she drove her minivan the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway for two miles. She crashed head-on into an SUV carrying three men from Yonkers, who also died. 

The men were identified as Michael Bastardi, 81, and his son, Guy Bastardi, 49, and their friend, Daniel Longo, 73.

Only Schuler's five-year-old son survived.

Schuler had called her brother just before the crash to say she felt disoriented.  He had asked her to stay put, but for some reason she kept driving.

Hance's three daughters, Emma Hance, 9, Alison Hance, 7, and Kate Hance, 5, were killed.  Schuler and her 2-year-old daughter, Erin, also died in the fiery crash -- Westchester's worst in 75 years.

The funeral for the Hance-Schuler family drew scores of family and loved ones, as well as community members saddened by the mysterious accident.

Today, police said they had found Schuler's discarded cell phone near the Tappan Zee Bridge.  It is unclear how the phone ended up there -- or if Schuler threw it from her minivan before the accident.

An autopsy conducted Monday found that Schuler was seemingly healthy at the time of the crash.

Six people called 911 to say a driver was going the wrong way.

 

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