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Police: DUI for Woman, 53, Who Hit, Damaged Front of Fire Truck

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A 53-year-old woman driving downtown at midnight, July 4 to 5, had more than double the legal limit of alcohol when she hit the front end of a fire engine parked in front of Darien Fire Department, police said. Darien police described the incident with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

The woman, a Norwalk resident, later told police she was driving home from a party in Milford. State police later told Darien police that they had received complaints about the woman’s erratic driving on Interstate 95. She had passed Norwalk on the highway and got off at Exit 11, then started driving east on the Post Road, through the center of town. A police officer on regular patrol was driving behind her vehicle, a 2000 Lexus RX station wagon SUV and noticed that her left-turn signal was on, although she was driving straight through town.

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Police: DUI for Woman, 52, After Car Crosses Traffic Lines

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A 52-year-old woman was charged with driving while intoxicated after a police officer saw her drive the wrong way on the one-way part of Center Street downtown, then drive over both the fog line and the double yellow line on Mansfield Avenue, police said. Darien police described the incident and arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At 1:56 a.m. on Sunday, July 3, an officer saw two vehicles going the wrong way on Center Street, where it’s a one-way road just behind the restaurants and bars along Tokeneke Road. The officer followed the vehicles as they turned onto Old Kings Highway South, then Tokeneke Road, the Post Road and then north on Mansfield Avenue. The officer saw one of the vehicles, a white BMW X4 cross the “fog line” on the right side of the road, then drift across the double yellow line in the middle of the road, until it was straddling he roadway in the area of Buttonwood Lane. The officer signaled for the car to pull over, which it did after about 20 seconds.

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DUI Charge for Man, 55, After Three-Car Accident on Hollow Tree Ridge Road

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A 55-year-old man driving at twice the legal blood-alcohol limit crashed into two other vehicles on Hollow Tree Ridge Road, near Red Cedar Drive, Darien police said. Police described the events with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, George Collazo, a resident of Wright Street in Stamford, was driving a gold 2000 Acura north on Hollow Tree Ridge Road when his vehicle veered into the southbound-traffic lane and sideswiped a car coming from the opposite direction. That vehicle was driven by a 54-year-old Trumbull man. ___________

— See also: After Car Accident, Teen Charged with Possessing Pot with Intent to Sell

___________

Collazo’s car then returned to the right lane and hit a vehicle pulling out of Red Cedar Drive. That vehicle was driven by a 44-year-old woman.

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DWI for Man, 42, Stopped Wednesday Night on Hoyt Street

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A Darien police officer in a patrol car by the side of the road on Hoyt Street last Wednesday got a tip, according to a police, when a driver stopped to tell her that the white van the driver had been behind was driving all over the road. The tip led to the arrest of a 42-year-old man on charges of driving while intoxicated. Darien police described what happened next in this account (including accusations not proven in court):

The officer, who had been stopped near St. John Cemetery,  started following the van south on Hoyt Street at about 9:48 p.m. She saw the work van, a 2015 Mercedes Sprinter, swerving within the right lane, as the tipster had said it was, and cross the double-yellow line, as the tipster had also described. She pulled the van over near the intersection of Hoyt Street and Briar Brae Road.

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Police: DUI Charge for Woman Driving Over 3X Alcohol Limit in Tokeneke

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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.

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Police: A New Industry Cuts Down on DUI in Darien

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Darien police have noticed that there have been fewer arrests for intoxicated driving recently, and they think they know why. It involves something else they’ve seen in recent months — many more Uber drivers (or drivers from similar services) picking up tipsy passengers late at night from bars and restaurants. “Our DWI [driving while intoxicated] arrests are actually down a little bit, and the reason why I think we see that […] is the Uber drivers are doing a booming business in Darien” Police Capt. Don Anderson said at the April 5 quarterly town department heads meeting with the Board of Selectmen. “Downtown weekend nights, we actually almost have an Uber parking lot where people are trying to park as close as they can to our local nightlife restaurants to pick up fares,” Anderson said. He continued:

“I think people are being very responsible.

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DUI Charge for Woman, 44, After Two-Vehicle Accident on Post Road

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A 44-year-old woman was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol after she caused a minor motor vehicle accident last Wednesday on the Post Road, police said. Darien police described the incident with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

The woman, a Stamford resident, was driving east on the Post Road just before 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20, when her Nissan Rogue rear-ended another SUV, a Chevrolet Equinox, near the intersection with West Norwalk Road. No injuries resulted. The Rogue suffered front-end damage; the Equinox, rear-end; damage to both vehicles was minor.