Woman Who Caused Wrong-Way Accident Drunk, High

[Greenday]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,536742,00.html

For those who haven't seen it on the news, a woman was driving home from a family party with five kids in her van. She got on the highway to go home, except she was on the wrong side and going AGAINST traffic. She drove that way for two miles before crashing into another car, killing all three of the other car's occupants, her daughter and three nieces in her car, wounded her son, and killing herself. The wounded son is recovering in the hospital right now.

Now, when I first heard this, I thought, "She drove TWO miles on a busy highway the wrong way? She must have been drunk or high!" Reports by the family said she rarely drank and she never smoked weed.

Tox reports just came back: she was drunk AND high. Now the reporters are going nuts. There are now claims that someone must have spiked her food/drinks. There are claims that the testing must have been wrong, like in the OJ case (heard a reporter say it last night). I don't buy that at all. Forensic scientists are being made out to look like incompetant morons because a couple people here and there make a mistake, so all of a sudden it's all forensic scientists. All sorts of excuses for the results.

So what do you guys think? Did the scientists running the tox screen botch it up, since according to the family she'd never drink that much or get high? Is the family full of crap?

[protege]

So what do you guys think? Did the scientists running the tox screen botch it up, since according to the family she'd never drink that much or get high? Is the family full of crap?

Quite a few families believe that their members can do no wrong. How many times have I read on CS, things similar to "my kid wouldn't lie" about various things. Even better, are the ones (locally) who, after being shown video footage of their kid or spouse committing a crime, still insist that it was set up

[MaggieTheCat]

I think it's entirely possible for someone to hide their addictions well enough from their family that the family doesn't know what's really going on. Or else that she liked to have a little extra fun at parties when she goes out. Of course, it's hard to tell anything from just that report. Are there any other news stories out there that elaborate on this story more?

[Greenday]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...lmV6wD99UB31G0

Oh, I forgot my favorite accusation from last night's news: maybe it was the people at the fast food drivethrough who spiked her food/drinks.

[MaggieTheCat]

Reading that article really makes me believe even more that the family either didn't know or were just overlooking a problem she had. Come on, there was a broken vodka bottle recovered from the crashed van, and her system had vodka in it according to the autopsy report, and the family is still insisting she didn't drink. Seriously?

My grandmother was a drunk most of her life. I didn't know this until just a few years ago when my parents told me. I never noticed it myself and they didn't want to admit it for a long time. My grandfather still won't admit that she had a problem. So, families really will go the extra miles to cover up stuff that they're ashamed/embarrassed about.

[Greenday]

Interesting that the article says it was found that she had vodka in her system. You can't test for different brands of alcohol. You can only test for chemicals and all drinking alcohols will result in ethanol.

[DrFaroohk]

When I was at the hospital once I overheard another patient and the doctor talking. Apparently this guy had like a .12 BAC and was swearing up and down that he never drank. While probably BS, the doctor did explain to him that its possible under certain circumstances for the body to convert blood sugar or semen or brain tissue or something into alcohol. Never heard of the weed thing though.

[Greenday]

The body can turn certain things into alcohol, but enough to get it up to a 0.12? I somehow doubt it.

And I'm pretty sure the body has no way of manufacturing its own THC.

[protege]

My grandmother was a drunk most of her life. I didn't know this until just a few years ago when my parents told me. I never noticed it myself and they didn't want to admit it for a long time. My grandfather still won't admit that she had a problem. So, families really will go the extra miles to cover up stuff that they're ashamed/embarrassed about.

I had an aunt who was a drunk. She managed to keep it hidden pretty well. Other than my uncle, nobody knew about it. That is, until he was getting some award for his Russian studies accomplishments at Lehigh a couple years back...and she embarrassed him. He was a professor there, had lived in Russia for awhile in the 1970s and '80s, and was pretty well-known.

Anyway, it seems that she was extremely trashed, and was being loud and obnoxious. My uncle, who really is a great guy, simply got tired of having to deal with it. Her antics at the ceremony were the last straw. He finally had enough, and tossed her ass out...literally the next day.

[DesignFox]

I haven't read the links, yet. (I'll get there eventually)

I heard about this story on the radio.

Very sad.

A friend of mine was speculating that she did it on purpose (committed suicide). Maybe this woman had deeper problems than her family ever guessed and just got tired of it all. We will never know.

Regardless of this woman's reasons, her actions are horrendous. It breaks my heart that those innocent kids died/have to suffer because of her selfish actions. Not to mention the poor random people she drove head first into.

[BroomJockey]

A friend of mine was speculating that she did it on purpose (committed suicide). Maybe this woman had deeper problems than her family ever guessed and just got tired of it all. We will never know.

Absolutely not, and your friend should be damned ashamed for cheapening the turmoil that anyone who HAS committed suicide has gone through. Every single fact in this case points to that option having odds of 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of being correct.

She was a mother, she'd not have risked her own kids that way. If she wanted them gone too, she'd have done something to kill them first. Women in general who commit suicide pick non-disfiguring options, as well as ways that are easy for survivors to clear up, further, suicides don't want to take others with them, and crashing head on was nearly guaranteed to do so. Individually, there are exceptions, but taken as a whole, there is NO way she was simply suicidal. I might buy psychotic, but that's it.

[Greenday]

Psychotic maybe, but I don't see suicidal. If it was meant to be suicide, I don't think she would have taken the kids with her.

[Mr Slugger]

The only drug that I know that can just appear is opium, and that's if you eat poppy seed bagels. Other than that there's no way to get a false result on both tests.

I tend to agree with the people that say she hid it. I went to school with this kid who was a complete lunatic at school. I'm talking way out there. Well a year after we got out of school he was in the news. He'd picked up a hooker, did all sorts of horrible things to her and them dumped her body in a quarry. Suffice it to say the family was there on TV saying how he was the nicest boy and that he couldn't harm a fly, and these charges were false.

[Boozy]

I had an aunt who was a drunk. She managed to keep it hidden pretty well.

I work in a wine store, as many of you know. Many of my customers have drinking problems, which I can only surmise from the number of times I see them and the quantities they buy. You'd never know it from how they talk, dress, or look. Many come in for a bottle of sherry before work and another one afterwards. But most hold down jobs.

There is no doubt in my mind that alcoholism can be hid relatively easily from co-workers and friends. It's probably harder to hide that kind of problem from those you live with, but you never know.

[AFPheonix]

It's also entirely possible that the signs were there for her family to see, and they just flat out ignored them. Many people can be blind to the faults and problems of their loved ones.