Darien police said a 36-year-old woman was charged with driving while under the influence after a driver on the Merritt Parkway followed her off an exit into Darien and then called police.
Police described what happened with this account (including accusations not proven in court):
At about 8 p.m., police were sent to the intersection of Mansfield Avenue and Stephen Mather Road on the report of a motor vehicle being driven in an erratic way. While officers were driving to the scene, they were told the complainant, a Stamford resident, somehow had got the driver of the erratic vehicle to stop on Stephen Mather Road.
On approaching the car — a black 2014 Nissan Altima — police saw damage around the front bumper and headlights. The driver, a Norwalk resident, told police she had hit a deer somewhere, but couldn’t say where or when. Officers checked with state police, who said they had no reports of any hit-and-run incidents. The other driver (who called police) didn’t notice her hitting anything.
When talking with the officers, they noticed that the woman’s speech was slurred, her eyes appeared bloodshot and glassy, and the smell of alcohol was coming from her car. When they asked her to step out of the car, they saw she was unsteady on her feat and the smell of alcohol was on her breath.
Asked if she’d been drinking, she said she had one glass of wine at work. In the car, police later found an open soda can filled with wine. She was given field sobriety tests, which she didn’t successfully complete. Police charged her with driving while under the influence.
The woman was given breath tests at Darien Police Headquarters. The results were extremely high: At 9:20 p.m., her blood-alcohol was measured at 0.3423. At 9:40 p.m., it was at 0.3336. Both results are more than four times the legal alcohol limit for an adult driver (0.08).
The woman was released on $250 bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on Nov. 28.