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WED WOES DROVE CRASH MA TO DRINK

The Long Island mother who drove bombed out of her mind with a minivan full of kids — triggering a head-on collision that killed 8 — routinely bellied up to the bar and griped about her failing marriage and stressful job, a drinking buddy told The Post.

Diane Schuler, 30 — who died in the wrong-way crash on the Taconic Parkway — recently “seemed under pressure, like work and family were getting to her,” said the pal, Sheila, who asked that her last name be withheld.

“Her marriage seemed a bit rocky, and I think she felt trapped by it,” the friend said of Schuler’s relationship with her husband, Daniel, a Nassau County public-safety officer. “For the last couple of months, she didn’t appear to be a happy woman.”

Schuler, a manager in Cablevision’s accounting department, would suck down screwdrivers at a Long Island saloon, where she was a regular the past few years and usually came by herself, her pal said, adding:

“I wouldn’t say she was an alcoholic, but she liked her drinks.

“She liked her vodka.”

A 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut was found in Schuler’s wrecked Ford Windstar after the fiery July 26 smash-up, which killed her, her 2-year-old daughter, her three young nieces and three Yonkers men in the SUV she hit.

The collision occurred after the troubled West Babylon resident drove south for 1.7 miles in the northbound lanes of the Taconic Parkway. She was high on marijuana and had the equivalent of 10 shots of booze in her stomach.

News of Schuler’s alcohol and drug abuse is a crushing blow, said her family, including her brother, Warren Hance, and his wife, Jackie, whose three young daughters died in the crash.

“Amidst all the uncertainties of how and why this accident occurred, this is the absolutely last thing that we ever would have expected,” the Hances said in a statement.

“We would never knowingly allow our daughters to travel with someone who might jeopardize their safety. Because we have never known Diane to be anything but a responsible and caring mother and aunt, this toxicology report raises more questions than it provides answers for the accident.”

Jackie’s mom, Phyllis Spagnuolo, told The Post, “The Hance family had no idea of what went on on the other side of the family. That makes it even more tragic.”

Daniel Schuler’s lawyer insisted to Fox 5 that his client’s wife had not been a heavy drinker or drug user and that their were no problems in the marriage.

“He’s suicidal,” Dominic Barbara said of Schuler.

He said Diane Schuler took the five children in her car that day because “everyone trusts her with kids . . . She drives 40 miles an hour.”

Schuler crashed about four hours after leaving a Sullivan County campground at around 9:30 a.m. as she was taking the kids back home.

A caller to WABC/Channel 7 said the campground at Hunters Lake — where Schuler and her family regularly stayed — is a known boozing area, where wild parties are the norm.

But owner Ann Scott insisted that such revelers are immediately thrown off the premises.

Scott also said Schuler appeared sober the morning she drove away with the kids and was not known to have boozed at the site.

After Schuler left the campground, she was next seen at a McDonald’s 11 miles away in Liberty, where witnesses also said she did not seem intoxicated, according to State Police Lt. Domenick Chiumento.

Her van was later spotted by several motorists driving erratically along Route 17 and I-87.

After crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge headed into Westchester County, Schuler called her brother to say she felt disoriented and was having trouble seeing.

During that call, Hance spoke with one of his daughters, but “he never indicated . . . to us” that she told him Schuler had been drinking or smoking, Chiumento said.

Anne Cuozzo, 37, who has lived across the street from the Schulers for seven years, said, “We never saw [Diane] drunk. Just like everyone else, this is news to us . . . They were very friendly. But who knows what really happens behind closed doors?”

The Schulers’ 5-year-old son, Bryan, who was the only survivor of the crash, has been moved out of the intensive-care unit at Westchester Medical Center, a source said. Daniel Schuler has maintained a round-the-clock vigil at Bryan’s bedside since the crash.

Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland, Rebecca Rosenberg, Kieran Crowley, Perry Chiaramonte and Larry Celona

cj.sullivan@nypost.com