A 53-year-old woman driving downtown at midnight, July 4 to 5, had more than double the legal limit of alcohol when she hit the front end of a fire engine parked in front of Darien Fire Department, police said.
Darien police described the incident with this account (including accusations not proven in court):
The woman, a Norwalk resident, later told police she was driving home from a party in Milford. State police later told Darien police that they had received complaints about the woman’s erratic driving on Interstate 95.
She had passed Norwalk on the highway and got off at Exit 11, then started driving east on the Post Road, through the center of town. A police officer on regular patrol was driving behind her vehicle, a 2000 Lexus RX station wagon SUV and noticed that her left-turn signal was on, although she was driving straight through town.
When she passed by Darien Fire Department headquarters, she hit the front end of a fire engine, taking off the front siren mounted on the grill. The truck was protruding about four feet into the roadway at the time.
The police officer activated the patrol car’s lights, and the woman pulled over. The officer smelled alcohol coming from inside her vehicle and had her perform field sobriety tests, which she did not pass.
She was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol and making an improper turn. When she was given a breath test at Darien Police Headquarters at 1:11 a.m., she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19, well over double the 0.08 allowed. A second test at 1:31 a.m. showed her blood-alcohol content even higher — 0.2066.
She was released to a family member on paying a $250 bond, and she is to appear July 15 in state Superior Court in Stamford.