A 30-year-old intoxicated man driving a van struck a telephone pole early Sunday evening on the Post Road near the Stamford border, Darien police said.
Police gave this account, including accusations not proven in court:
At 7:17 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 16, when police arrived at the scene near the intersection of the Post Road and Brookside Drive, they saw that 2019 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van had received significant front-end damage, and an airbag had deployed. The van had mounted the curb before hitting the pole. The police news release didn’t indicate whether the driver was injured.
The driver appeared to be disoriented and showed signs of impairment, including the smell of alcohol. The man, from the Ozone Park neighborhood in Queens, New York City, couldn’t adequately complete field sobriety tests. He was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated and failure to drive in the proper lane.
At Darien Police Headquarters a breath test measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.18, and a second test measured it at 0.17. Both results were twice the legal limit for a driver, 0.8.
The man was released (police didn’t say the amount of his bond, if he had one) and is scheduled to appear March 7 in state Superior Court in Stamford.