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New Canaan Police on June 18 arrested a Stamford man, 34, in connection with a 2018 single-vehicle crash that officials say occurred while he was driving with a blood-alcohol concentration nearly three times the legal limit.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by NCPD Officer William Sheehan signed by a state Superior Court judge and obtained by NewCanaanite.com, the man crashed Jan. 7, 2018 near the entrance to Mead Park.
Sheehan said in an affidavit that officers were dispatched to the scene at approximately 11:45 p.m. on a report of a one-car crash. There, they found the vehicle facing east in a ditch after it had left the roadway, striking a telephone pole head-on.
Police said the vehicle sustained severe front-end damage, all of its airbags had deployed and a large circular impact mark was visible on the windshield. The driver, the vehicle’s sole occupant, was outside the car with apparent injuries, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that the driver appeared disoriented, was bleeding from his hands and repeatedly attempted to stand but fell to the ground. Because he did not speak English, Officer Seabastian Obando responded to assist with translation, the arrest warrant application said.
While speaking with the driver, Sheehan smelled alcohol on his breath and person. The officer also wrote that the driver’s eyes were glassy and bloodshot, his speech was slurred and he could barely speak. The driver was transported to Norwalk Hospital because of the severity of the crash, Sheehan said.
An investigation determined that the driver had been traveling south on Park Street when he lost control of the vehicle, left the roadway about 89.5 feet before striking the utility pole and came to rest in a ditch.
Police later obtained a search warrant for blood and urine samples that had been collected at the hospital during treatment. According to the affidavit, testing by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Forensic Science Laboratory found the driver’s blood alcohol concentration to be .22%, nearly three times Connecticut’s legal limit of .08%.
Police arrested the man at about 7 p.m. on June 18, taking custody at the Stamford Police Department where he’d been held on the active warrant. He has not pleaded or retained counsel, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. The man was released on $5,000 bond and now is scheduled for arraignment July 1.