A Darien police officer driving on Interstate 95 spotted a car driving as slow as 45 mph and then as fast as 75, changing lanes without signaling and swerving within the lane, so the car was pulled over, police said.
The driver was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, among other charges. Police described the incident and arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):
The officer was driving on the northbound side of the highway at 2:47 a.m. when the car, a 2013 Dodge Dart, was seen as it approached the Darien North rest stop. The officer activated emergency lights and had the car pull over. The driver was directed to park in the lot at the rest stop.
The woman, a 23-year-old resident of Elm Street in Norwalk, gave the officer a Guatamalan identification card and said she had two Sex on the Beach drinks earlier that night. She said she was going home to Norwalk from Stamford. She didn’t have a driver’s license with her.
The officer saw that the woman’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and her speech was slurred. She was directed to get out of the car to take field sobriety tests. She did not pass them and was charged with driving while under the influence, failure to signal when changing lanes and driving without a driver’s license (after having been charged with that offense previously).
At police headquarters, she took two breath tests. The first, at 3:40 a.m., showed she had 0.1898 blood-alcohol content; the second, at 4 a.m., 0.1797 — over twice the legal limit of 0.08.
She posted a $250 bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Oct. 19.