(Nov. 9) -- Witnesses saw Diane Schuler pull to the side of the road and get sick before she drove the wrong way down a New York freeway July 26 and caused a deadly car crash, according to police reports obtained by the New York Post.
Schuler first pulled over her minivan at 11:45 a.m. on the day of the crash, the police reports say. Witnesses "noticed an adult female outside of the vehicle with brown hair, wearing blue, knee-length shorts, bent over with her hands on her knees, as if throwing up," the records say.
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She was seen stopping again a short time later just north of a rest stop, the Post reported. At 1:35 p.m., she crashed her vehicle into an SUV carrying three men on the Taconic State Parkway, killing them as well as herself, her 2-year-old daughter and her three young nieces.
Autopsy results released in August showed Schuler was driving drunk and had smoked marijuana before the crash.
Late last week, The Associated Press reported that Schuler's relatives told police she used pot as a way of coping with stress.
Schuler's husband told police she "smoked marijuana once in a while to relieve the stress of work and the kids," a police report said.
Schuler's sister-in-law told police she "didn't believe in medicine and used marijuana to relax," usually smoking after her children went to bed, according to the report.
Relatives of the crash victims got the report Friday during a meeting with police and prosecutors, then made it available to reporters.
