Mom of Three Girls, Who Were Killed in Drunken 2009 Taconic Crash, Speaks Out for the First Time

Jackie Hance, who lost her three daughters in a 2009 wrong-way drunken driving accident on the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester, is speaking out for the first time.

She tells her story in the Ladies' Home Journal, and speaks out about her struggles of the loss of her daughters, and that she still has trouble accepting that her sister-in-law was responsible.

"People always ask how I feel about Diane," Hance told the magazine. "You can't imagine how complex that question is. How does a person go from being like a sister to me -- adored by my girls and cherished by my husband -- to being the one who ruined our lives?"

The wrong-way crash on July 26, 2009, as one group headed to a Sunday pasta dinner, while another traveled home after a weekend camping trip.

The girls' aunt, Diane Schuler, 36, drove a minivan the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway in New York and slammed headfirst into an oncoming SUV. Schuler was later found to be drunk.

Hance said that for weeks she couldn't process what had happened.

"When something this terrible happens, your brain simply can't process it -- or at least mine couldn't," she said. "For weeks after the accident I'd wake up thinking it was that Sunday again and that the girls were heading home. And every day my husband or one of my friends would have to tell me the awful news all over again."

Her daughters, Emma, 8, Alyson, 7, and Katie, 5 had gone off for a weekend camping trip with their aunt Diane, uncle Danny, and cousins Bryan and Erin, ages 5 and 2.

The crash, the deadliest in Westchester County in 75 years, devastated the lives of four families, two here in Westchester County, and two across Long Island Sound on Long Island. 

Hance also told the magazine that she and her husband are expecting a baby in the fall.

Read Jackie Hance's full interview with Ladies' Home Journal here.