Police last week arrested a 53-year-old New Canaan woman by warrant in connection with a car crash this summer where she tested at nearly three times the legal limit.
At about 8:17 p.m. on Aug. 7 (a Friday), emergency responders were dispatched to East Avenue and Summer Street, where a Jeep had crashed into a utility pole, according to the affidavit of New Canaan Police Officer Nolan Heintz that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed Sept. 21 by state Superior Court judge John Blawie. The front end of the vehicle itself “sustained heavy damage with multiple airbag deployments” while the driver, when approached by Heintz, “asked me something incoherently about going to Norwalk but could not explain with any additional context,” he said in the arrest warrant application, obtained by NewCanaanite.com.
Asked if she was hurt and wanted to go to Norwalk Hospital, the woman “mumbled no” and then “did not acknowledge my statement” when advised about the severity of the crash, the application said.
Asked what had happened, “all she could articulate was the word ‘rain,’ ” it said.
“Important to note, it was in fact raining, however at the time of the accident it wasn’t raining heavily,” Heintz said in the affidavit.
Though no alcohol could be detected on the woman’s breath, she looked “confused” with a “blank/vacant stare” with glossy eyes during the interaction, struggling to focus and having “difficulty maintaining a coherent conversation,” the arrest warrant application said.
Asked if she’d been drinking, the woman said she doesn’t drink, the application said. The woman said she’d hit her head but could not elaborate on any pain or say just where she’d been hit, with “no visible lacerations or bruising” on her head, it said.
A witness to the crash said the Jeep ran a stop sign while traveling south on Summer Street, stopped abruptly in the road, then “suddenly accelerated directly into the utility pole,” with the driver appearing “wobbly” and seeming “out of it” as she exited, the application said. A member of the EMS said the woman “did not remember crashing her car” while being evaluated and asked where she was, it said. The woman had also told a member of EMS that “she had two glasses of wine earlier at her friend’s house,” it said.
Through a search warrant, police obtained the results of a chemical analysis of blood and urine with Norwalk Hospital and Northwell Health, showing that her blood-alcohol level was .22%, nearly three times the legal limit of .08%. “A review of the medical records [from Northwell Health in Westport] revealed that medical personnel documented that [the woman] was hypoglycemic at the scene and also listed alcohol intoxication as their impression,” the application said.
She turned herself in to police at about 5:46 a.m. on Sept. 30 on a charge of driving under the influence (and motor vehicle violations), and appeared the same day, held on $25,000 bond. She has not yet pleaded and has been released on a promise to appear Nov. 16, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records.