"Law & Order" rips story from Taconic tragedy

THE SHOW "Law & Order"

WHEN | WHERE Friday night at 9 on NBC/4

REASON TO WATCH Ripped from an almost unbearably tragic headline - the July 26 accident in which Diane Schuler of West Babylon drove on the wrong side of the Taconic Parkway, crashing her minivan into an oncoming car, killing herself, the four children riding with her and three men in the other vehicle. Toxicology reports later found that Schuler was drunk and high on marijuana.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT A woman is driving her minivan down a busy Manhattan street, with three little girls in the backseat, and a boy strapped in the front, when something goes wrong. She sneezes, asks for her nasal spray. She begins to drive erratically, narrowly missing two people at a crosswalk. She veers across traffic and then heads onto a ramp, fast, just before the 145th Street Bridge on the Harlem River Drive. The girls are killed, the mother dies later, and the boy survives. People in another car are also killed - for a total of seven.

"Now I know why I take the subway," mutters Det. Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson), investigating the carnage. A liquor bottle is found in the front seat, and toxicology determines she was drunk. The distraught husband insists his wife was not a drinker, though police want to know when/where she got the bottle. Cops also learn that the little girl had called her dad before the crash - her aunt was driving erratically.

Eventually, the woman's boss (played by "Mad Men's" Rich Sommer) at the pharmaceutical company she works for becomes implicated. Was she a whistle-blower and did someone want to silence her?

BOTTOM LINE Of course, this episode has already drawn flak. A New York Post reporter came upon filming in Harlem, contacted the Yonkers victims' family and a representative for the Schuler family of West Babylon, who all expressed outrage - how could this show use this tragedy?

In fact, the families were right. Outrage is warranted. "Law & Order" has made a grievous error in judgment.

Friday's episode isn't simply an issue of "too soon." This tragedy should never, never have been used. Why couldn't the plot turn on a single-car accident, or any other "accident" - no children involved, no headlines to rip from? The inescapable conclusion, I'm afraid, is that "L&O" chose this one because notoriety leads to the almighty ratings number. Dick Wolf is the creator of "L&O" - a great show that has exercised almost unbelievably poor judgment here - and I guess my final question has to be this: Have you no shame? "Law & Order's" next ripped-from-the-headlines story? The David Letterman sex scandal. According to thewrap.com, a casting call has gone out for the episode, which will concern a "well-known celebrity talk-show host, married," who has engaged in "a series of short-lived affairs with some of the employees on the show."