Remember the mother who drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway near New York City, eventually causing a crash that killed eight people, including her daughter and three nieces, and critically injured her son?

Police announced today that the woman, Diane Schuler, had a blood alcohol level of .19 and had also smoked marijuana in the hour before her death.

Apparently, she was driving erratically for some time before the crash: straddling lanes, tailgating, flashing her lights, driving across a median, and trying to pass on the shoulder. Six people called 911 to report her.

My initial reaction when I heard about this crash was to feel a measure of relief that this woman did not survive. I thought no person could or should have to live with that much pain. But, thinking now of what those last minutes must have been like for those terrified children, I find myself wishing she had survived.