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MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. The ugliness of Diane Schuler's wrong way Taconic State Parkway accident may be returning two years later, this time in the courtroom.
An array of cases have been recently filed, all aiming to place blame in the tragic accident that took the lives of eight. The lawsuits are more startling because they are between family members, close friends and, sometimes, fellow victims.
Jackie Hance, who lost her three daughters in the accident, filed suit against her brother-in-law, Daniel Schuler, according to The New York Post.
The suit claims that the three Hance girls -- Emma, 8, Alyson, 7 and Katie, 5 -- suffered "terror, fear of impending death, extreme horror, fright, [and] mental anguish."
Earlier this week, Daniel Schuler, the husband of Diane Schuler, who was driving the wrong way while intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana, filed suits against the state of New York, claiming the roads were unsafe, and Warren Hance, who owned the car Schuler was driving. Hance, Dianes brother and Daniel's brother-in-law, lost his three young daughters in the accident. Because Schuler was driving Hance's car at the time of the accident, Daniel claimed he is vicariously liable for the accident.
Jackie Hance recently co-wrote an article in Ladies Home Journal that expressed how she is dealing with the loss of her three daughters in the accident.
"While everything that mattered was already gone, everything that remained could still be taken," Hance said in the article, referring to the lawsuit filed against her husband Warren last year by the family of Guy Bastardi, who was driving the correct way on the parkway when Diane Schuler crashed into his car.
Thomas Ruskin, a private investigator hired by Daniel Schuler to examine the accident, expressed his displeasure with Schuler's lawsuit.
"It definitely doesn't integrate yourself with people that may actually feel for you," Ruskin said.
The car that Guy Bastardi was driving also carried his father, Michael Bastardi, and a family friend, Daniel Longo. Now Longo's brother filed a lawsuit claiming that Guy Bastardi bore partial responsibility for the death of Daniel as Guy was the driver of the vehicle.
Calls placed to Kevin Grennan, the attorney for Daniel Schuler, and Kenneth Pyror, the attorney for Warren Hance, were unreturned Wednesday.
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