Driving While Intoxicated

Police: Man, 43, Encouraged Two Underage Caddies to Drink Alcohol, Held Drinking Games on Golf Course

Police: Woman, 27, Charged with DUI, Thought She Was in Stamford

Police: Woman, 48, Charged with DUI After Driving Intoxicated on Pot, Alcohol or Both

Police: DUI for Man, 61, After His Vehicle Hit Parked Car

Woman, 23, Charged with DUI in 2:47 AM Incident

DUI Arrest for Woman, 59, After Two-Car Crash on Middlesex Road

Midnight DUI for Woman, 55, on Tokeneke Road

Police: DUI for Darien Woman with Close to Triple Blood-Alcohol Limit

DUI for Darien Boy, 17, on Long Neck Point Road

Police: A New Industry Cuts Down on DUI in Darien

Crashing the Car Was Only the Beginning of This Man’s Troubles

Police: DUI Charge for Man, 59, Speeding at 53 MPH on Post Rd

Police: DUI for Driver After Crash Into Utility Pole and Fence

Police: Sobriety Tests and Walking Did Not Put Unsteady Arrestee in Danger

Police Say DUI Arrestee Nearly Fell Twice, Then They Had Him Perform Standing Sobriety Test

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Darien police arrest photo James Hurty, 43, of the Post Road in Darien

A 43-year-old Darien man golfing at Wee Burn Country Club not only provided alcohol to two caddies, both under 21, but encouraged them to drink more by holding drinking games, police said. The man’s encouragement was “somewhat forceful” in the words of the Darien police announcement, which relied on the accounts of one or both of the caddies. Later that day, June 25, one of the caddies was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Police provided this further information about the matter, including accusations not proven in court (all quotes are from the police announcement, not from witnesses):

Blaine Hurty, 43, of the Post Road, provided alcohol to the caddies “throughout the day,” according to the announcement. He not only encouraged them to drink, but he got so intoxicated that he himself could no longer play, and he let the caddies play, holding small contests for them, in which the loser was supposed to have “an entire alcohol drink.”

When a Darien police officer spoke with a woman, 27, later arrested on charges of driving while under the influence on Tokeneke Road, the woman was asked if she knew where she was parked, police said. According to the police report, she responded that yes, she knew where she was: “I’m in Stamford.” Darien police described what happened with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At about 6 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, Darien police were called to a lawn in front of a business at 120 Tokeneke Road, where a white BMW was parked and a state police trooper was already on the scene. The trooper said she had been flagged down by a driver on Interstate 95 who told her that a person in a vehicle appeared to be in distress on Tokeneke Road.

A 48-year-old woman who couldn’t pass a field sobriety test was charged with driving while under the influence, although she couldn’t or wouldn’t submit to a urine test and police did not request a breath test, Darien police said. According to the police report, she said she had a small amount of alcohol earlier the night she was arrested. Police found a potent liquid with the active ingredient of marijuana on her and the strong odor of marijuana when they spoke with her. But with no tests done, they don’t know what substance caused her to be unable to complete the field sobriety test. Police described the incident and her arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At 12:30 a.m., a police officer on patrol was driving east on the Post Road when the officer saw a vehicle going south on West Norwalk Road with its hazard lights blinking.

A 61-year-old man was intoxicated at about 5:15 p.m., Sunday, when he backed his car into another vehicle, damaging it, and then drove away, Darien police said. Darien police described the incident with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At 5:15 p.m., police were called by the owner of the parked car, who said the other vehicle, a 2002 Audi S8, drove away. The victim followed the Audi to a parking lot at 157 Rowayton Ave. in Rowayton, about a mile away, and Darien police went there. The Audi driver, who lives on Shorefront Drive in Norwalk, was still sitting in his car and the engine was running when police arrived.

A Darien police officer driving on Interstate 95 spotted a car driving as slow as 45 mph and then as fast as 75, changing lanes without signaling and swerving within the lane, so the car was pulled over, police said. The driver was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, among other charges. Police described the incident and arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

The officer was driving on the northbound side of the highway at 2:47 a.m. when the car, a 2013 Dodge Dart, was seen as it approached the Darien North rest stop. The officer activated emergency lights and had the car pull over. The driver was directed to park in the lot at the rest stop.

Darien police this weekend arrested a 59-year-old woman on a warrant after an August car accident that sent both drivers to the hospital. Police described the events with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At about 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 15, the woman was driving a 2005 Mercury Sable east on Middlesex Road near its intersection with Laurel Lane when she went into the opposite traffic lane just as a 20-year-old Darien man, driving west, was headed toward her. The Darien man, in a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu, swerved into the opposite lane to avoid the oncoming car, but his vehicle was hit. It was damaged heavily on its right (passenger) side and in the rear.

Just as a 55-year-old woman got off the Exit 12 ramp on Tokeneke Road, a police officer saw her car swerve in its lane and cross the double yellow line, an observation that led to an arrest for driving while under the influence, police said. Darien police described the incident and arrest with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At 12:19 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, Jeannette Bernhard of Bridgeport, took a left turn off of the exit ramp onto Tokeneke Road. A police officer was headed in the same direction and saw her driving the 2014 Toyota sedan as it traveled west on the street. The officer followed the car on the Post Road west to the intersection with Mansfield Avenue and pulled it over near there.

A 62-year-old Darien woman charged with driving while under the influence had almost triple the legal blood-alcohol content in her when she took a breath test, police said. Darien police described the incident and her arrest in this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At 12:38 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 7, a police officer saw a Chevrolet fail to stop for the stop sign at the corner of Center Street and Old Kings Highway South. When he stopped the vehicle and spoke with the driver, he smelled alcohol coming from inside the car. The driver told police she had been drinking at Darien Social.

Tip: When driving toward a police patrol car at 3:30 a.m., do not suddenly turn off your headlights. It will not make you less conspicuous. That, according to a Darien police report, is what a 17-year-old Darien boy did last Thursday while driving north on Long Neck Point Road (to be fair, we don’t actually know why he turned off the headlights). The result was that the police officer turned around, followed the 2007 Jeep Wrangler and saw it cross over the yellow line on the roadway. The officer pulled over the vehicle.

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.

According to police, a 33-year-old Stratford man at about 3 p.m. on Dec. 13:

— was driving erratically on Mansfield Avenue,
— while he was intoxicated, and
— crashed a car belonging to his brother,
— left the accident scene (where the car started burning and was destroyed), and then
— went into a nearby house through an open garage, then was told to leave by the homeowner. Police said the family of the man told them that he has an emotional health condition. No injuries resulted from the incident. Darien police described the incident with this account (with accusations not proven in court):

Just before the accident, two witnesses told police that the man was driving erratically on Mansfield Avenue, traveling north.

Shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 28, a police officer watching traffic on the Post Road clocked a car at 53 mph, driven by an intoxicated man who failed to stop for a red light before he turned onto a side street, police said.

Darien police gave this further account (with accusations not proven in court):

The officer was parked at the intersection of Purdy Lane and the Post Road when he saw the 2000 gray Honda Civic traveling west toward Stamford. The speed limit for the Post Road there is 35 mph. The car drove into Stamford with the police officer in pursuit. The Honda didn’t stop for a red light before turning from Route 1 (which is East Main Street in Stamford) onto Hamilton Avenue or Brookside Drive in Stamford (maps differ over whether Brookside in Stamford extends to Route 1; the driver may have traveled north a bit on Hamilton Avenue and then turned right onto nearby Brookside Drive).

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.

Darien police were able to keep a man safe just before they arrested him Nov. 24 on a DUI charge, despite the man repeatedly losing his balance while he was in their care, a spokesman for the Police Department said.

“To my knowledge the Department has no reason whatsoever to believe anything other than that the involved officers acted professionally while keeping in mind the safety of everyone involved,” said Sgt. Jeremiah Marron, a Police Department spokesman. Marron said that police are trained to keep intoxicated people from falling when they’re unsteady on their feet during DUI field sobriety tests. The spokesman also said that at another point, when the man started walking diagonally toward traffic, there was no indication in the report that he came close to walking into an oncoming vehicle.

« August 2022 »

An 8:51 a.m. call to Darien police about a disabled car creating a traffic hazard on a roadway led to a charge of driving while under the influence for a 52-year-old town resident. According to police: When they arrived at the scene, after the driver twice lost his balance (and was twice assisted by police officers to keep him from falling down), he was still asked to perform a field sobriety test. The second time he lost his balance he began walking toward oncoming traffic. In the third part of these tests, the driver is told to stand on one leg. At that point, he lost his balance for the third time, and a police officer rushed in to keep him from falling. Darien police described the incident further with this account (including accusations not proven in court):

When police arrived at Mansfield Avenue near its intersection with Tower Drive on Tuesday, Nov.