A three-vehicle accident that resulted in an injury for one Darien man was caused by an intoxicated driver who had more than three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood, Darien police said.
The 53-year-old driver was charged with driving while under the influence after Darien police used a search warrant to get the driver’s hospital records and then arrested him on a warrant after the Sept. 21 accident.
The driver was previously charged with driving while under the influence in 2011 in Stamford.
Darien police described the case in this account (containing accusations not proven in court):
Darien Police Nov. 3, 2015 arrest photo for Jaroslav Judak, 53, of Stamford, charged with driving while under the influence
Jaroslav Judak was driving a Chevrolet Explorer van south on Hollow Tree Ridge Road around 4 p.m. that day, a Monday, when he made a left turn onto Heights Road — but continued turning left too far and crossed the double yellow lines on Heights.
His van struck two vehicles in the westbound-traffic lane that were stopped for the traffic light.
Judak’s white van struck a blue Jeep Cherokee, damaging the driver’s side of the vehicle, as well as a gray Mazda 3S, causing heavy damage to the Mazda and pushing it back about five feet.
Both the Jeep and the Mazda were pushed off the roadway and over a bush near the Glen Liquors store. Judak’s van ended up within a few feet of the store building.
The Mazda’s airbag deployed, which cut and hurt the right wrist of the driver, a 60-year-old Darien man.
Judak was taken by a Darien EMS-Post 53 ambulance to Stamford Hospital for an evaluation after he said he’d struck his hand on the steering wheel and also had a nose injury. The 60-year-old Darien man driving the Jeep wasn’t injured.
Judak, who had a small cut on his nose, told police he was on his cell phone talking to his daughter while driving. As he spoke a police officer, the officer smelled alcohol on him and saw that Judak’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot.
The driver at first said he’d had one beer before driving, and later said he’d had two beers at his house an hour before driving. Police found two bottles or cans of Mike’s Hard Lemonade in a cooler on the floor in front of the front passenger seat of the van.
Since Judak went to the hospital, he wasn’t given field sobriety tests, but police applied for and received approval for a search warrant to get a sample of his blood, which was tested by the state Department of Emergency Services Toxicology Laboratory.
The lab’s test showed Judak was driving with a 0.28 blood-alcohol content level, more than three times above the legal limit of 0.08 for a driver.
Darien police then applied for and on Nov. 2 received an arrest warrant for Judak, a resident of Dyke Lane in Stamford.
Judak turned himself in to police the next day and was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, failure to stay on the right side of the road and use of a cell phone while driving. He is scheduled to appear Nov. 13 in state Superior Court in Stamford.