Never-made-public 911 tapes reveal that cops were in a dramatic race against the clock to locate the five kids in a van driven by wrong-way DWI mom Diane Schuler — but they were tragically unaware that time had already run out.
New details about Schuler’s phone records also show that at least one of the terrified children may have repeatedly dialed and misdialed numbers in a heartbreaking bid for help — before the cellphone was taken away, sources said.
In one of the outside 911 calls to authorities, transcripts of which were obtained by The Post, a friend of Schuler calls the State Police in Westchester.
The friend tells cops that Schuler is driving erratically and asks for police help finding them because of a presumed medical emergency.
In another call, Warren Hance, Schuler’s brother and the father of the three girls, is heard desperately trying to get information from Schuler’s husband, Dan.
But Dan doesn’t appear to be grasping what Hance is saying, and fails to immediately relay the possibly lifesaving information needed to trace Diane’s cellphone and, ultimately, her location.
“Danny, does the cellphone bill come in [the name] Hance or Schuler?” Hance can be heard saying, before a pause of several seconds.
“Danny? You with me?” Hance demands, before another pause.
Tom Ruskin, a private investigator for Dan Schuler, said his client didn’t answer right away because he was distraught and at one point dropped his phone.
The family eventually got cops the billing information, which was vital for the phone company to locate the specific cellular tower that was closest to Diane Schuler’s phone.
But by the time the calls were made, she was already dead, having driven the wrong way down the Taconic Parkway in Westchester and rammed her minivan head-on into a Chevy Trailblazer.
Schuler, her daughter, Erin, 2, and her three nieces — Emma Hance, 8, Alyson Hance, 7, and Katie Hance, 5 — died in the crash. Also killed were the three men in the Trailblazer: Michael Bastardi, 81, his son Guy Bastardi, 49, and Daniel Longo, 74.
Schuler’s son, Bryan, 5, survived.
Authorities later said Schuler was drunk and had been smoking marijuana before the crash.
Meanwhile, records of Schuler’s cellphone obtained by The Post show that someone in the vehicle repeatedly dialed wrong numbers — missing several possible opportunities to get help.
“I think it was the children, trying to help themselves,” said Brian Sichol, a lawyer for members of the Bastardi family. “They recognized it was their only lifeline.”
One of the frantic calls from Diane’s Ford Windstar wound up going to a stranger, Peter Flammia of Oyster Bay, LI.
He told The Post it was “weird” when police later told him that the wrong-number call he received at 1:10 p.m. that Sunday was from Schuler’s phone.
