Police say that after a 58-year-old woman crashed through a fence on Raymond Street and her vehicle’s air bag deployed, she insisted she was fine and just wanted to go home.
But police made other plans, and she eventually was charged with driving while under the influence.
Darien police gave this account (consisting of accusations not proven in court) of the matter:
The driver, a Norwalk resident, eventually told police after her arrest that she had been drinking three or four mojitos at a friend’s home in Stamford.
At 6:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24, police were called to the scene of a one-vehicle accident on Raymond Avenue near its intersection with Musket Lane. Her 2007 Kia Sportage sport utility vehicle was on a slight incline, and the driver was on the sidewalk.
Her eyes were glassy and bloodshot, she was swaying while standing still and when she talked, a police officer smelled the strong odor of alcohol. When asked at that point how much alcohol she had to drink, she said a couple of drinks.
She argued with the officer a bit, insisting that she wanted to go home, and began walking away before an officer got in front of her and asked her to walk back to the sidewalk for her safety. She didn’t pass field sobriety tests.
A witness told police that the woman was driving “west” on Raymond (which, on a map, appears to be a north-south road) abruptly turned right when the witness’s vehicle approached from the opposite direction. The Kia then hit a utility pole, then struck a fence.
When the witness initially approached the Kia, the Norwalk woman driving it was motionless and appeared to be unconscious, but then began to put the vehicle in reverse. A nearby resident (who heard the crash and came out to see what was happening) told police that he and the other witness told the driver to turn the vehicle off.
Darien EMS-Post 53 medics arrived and recommended that the woman go to a hospital, but she refused. Police arrested her on charges of driving while under the influence and making an improper turn.
Her first breath test at Police Headquarters, taken at 8:07 p.m., indicated a 0.1516 blood-alcohol content; the second, at 9:22 p.m., 0.1335 (there is a margin of error in blood-alcohol breath tests, but the first one is nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08).
She later posted $100 bond and was scheduled to appear Dec. 4 in state Superior Court in Stamford.