A 23-year-old woman driving intoxicated nearly hit a pedestrian on Searles Road last Tuesday, a Tokeneke constable had to drive off the road into a driveway to avoid being hit by the same vehicle, Darien police said.
The same vehicle was reported to have struck another vehicle twice in the Center Street parking lot that same day, police said, and a breathalyzer test later showed the woman’s blood-alcohol content at more than three times the legal limit, according to police.
Darien police described the events with this account (including information not proven in court):
At about 6:30 p.m. a constable patroling on Tokeneke Trail saw a black SUV driving at a high rate of speed on Cross Road. The constable tried to follow the SUV, but it was going too fast and the constable failed to catch up to it and lost sight of it on Cross Road near Searles Road.
The constable turned onto Searles Road, where a pedestrian flagged him down with flailing arms and said she had been nearly hit by a black Ford SUV driving south on Searles. She gave the constable the first three letters on the New York state license plate number of the vehicle, which matched the black 2012 Ford Explorer SUV that was later stopped.
When the constable drove in that direction, the black SUV came around a bend heading northbound in the southbound traffic lane. The constable had to turn into a driveway to avoid being struck. The constable then followed and caught up with the vehicle on Searles Road near Old Farm Road, where he stopped the SUV. He had the driver turn over the keys to him.
The driver’s speech was slurred and her eyes were bloodshot. She told Darien police who arrived on the scene that she had two drinks earlier in the evening and was heading home to Locust Valley, N.Y., where she had come from earlier. She was in Darien, she said, because she works at the Tokeneke Club.
She failed to pass any of the field sobriety tests she was given. After she was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, she was arrested and taken to Darien Police Headquarters.
There, she fell off a bench twice. A breath test indicated her blood-alcohol level was 0.2992 at 7:28 p.m. and 0.2679 at 7:49 p.m. The legal limit is 0.08, less than a third of the concentration from either reading.
Because of the woman’s high level of intoxication, Darien EMS-Post 53 was called and transported her to Stamford Hospital. She was released on a promise to appear in court at a later date. Her boyfriend was called and went to Stamford Hospital to take her home.
While the woman was at the police station, police received a call about a fender-bender. The person who witnessed the incident gave police the license plate number of the arrested woman’s SUV. The witness said the vehicle struck a parked, unoccupied vehicle twice in the Center Street parking lot downtown.
A police spokesman did not immediately have more information on that incident.
In addition to driving while under the influence, the woman was also charged with failure to drive right and evading responsibility in an accident.