A 64-year-old driver was reported to police as driving in an erratic way on Old Kings Highway North, near Goodwives Shopping Center on Palm Sunday evening, and then charged with driving while under the influence after officers themselves saw his driving, Darien police said.
Darien police described what happened with this account, including accusations not proven in court:
At 8:17 p.m., Sunday, March 25 someone called police to report the way a tan Chevrolet Silverado was being driven in the area. Officers dispatched to the area saw the car being driven very slowly through the shopping center parking lot.
While following the car as it left the lot and headed east on Old Kings Highway North. the officer saw the driver make small abrupt movements and eventually cross outside the lane, over the double-yellow line at a curve in the road.
The car turned right and onto the Old Kings Highway North bridge over Interstate 95, striking he curb on the right side. The officer pulled over the vehicle.
The eyes of the driver, a Norwalk man, were bloodshot and glassy, his speech slurred and he had the strong oder of an alcoholic beverage coming from him, the officer noted. When he got out of the car for a field sobriety test, he swayed and was unsteady on his feet.
He couldn’t complete the sobriety test in a satisfactory way and was charged with driving while under the influence, failure to drive on the right side of the road.
Breath tests at Police Headquarters showed that the driver had a blood-alcohol content of 0.218 at 9:31 p.m. and a slightly higher content, 0.219, at 9:51 p.m. — while blood-alcohol content generally goes down over time, it can go up not long after drinking. The legal limit for drivers is a blood-alcohol content of 0.08. The driver’s BAC was between two and three times that.
The man was released on a $250 bond and is scheduled to appear April 5 in state Superior Court in Stamford.