Two Coram Road neighbors insist police should have arrested a woman who was “clearly drunk” after crashing her car in front of their homes.
A spokesman for the Shelton Police Department said they are reviewing the allegations. Police confirmed a crash took place and that no arrests were made.
Neighbors said the crash happened at about 11:15 p.m. June 30, just after a sharp curve on Coram Road. The car went off the road, over a pile rocks and several mailboxes before coming to rest on the lawn at 28 Coram Road.
Danielle Elwood and Gary Haydek live across the street from the crash site. They came outside after hearing the noise.
Elwood’s husband, William, a Shelton firefighter, helped the woman out of her car.
Haydek saw the woman and immediately thought — she’s drunk.
“She didn’t appear like she could walk. She was staggering all over the place. She reeked of alcohol,” Haydek said.
The woman walked across the street to Elwood’s front stoop.
Haydek said the driver wanted help getting the car back on the road so she could leave.
Elwood said the driver kept saying “I can’t get a DUI. I can’t get a DUI.”
Haydek also said he heard her make the statement.
“At least once a minute you heard that phrase come out of her mouth,” Haydek said.
Josh Orosz, 22, lives at 28 Coram Road, where the car crashed onto the front lawn.
He said he heard the driver say — from his front porch while she was across the street on Elwood’s stoop — that she “couldn’t get another DUI.”
Orosz said the driver didn’t appear drunk to him, other than her own statements about DUI.
“She tried to drive off, but Danielle’s husband came out and told her to shut the car off,” Orosz said. “All she kept saying for the next five minutes before the cops showed up was ‘I can’t get another DUI. I can’t get another DUI.’”
Elwood said the responding officer said he did not smell alcohol on the woman’s breath.
“She smelled like she drank the entire bar,” Elwood said. “I could smell it. My husband could smell it. Everybody could smell it except the cop,” she said.
Elwood said the police officer should have at least performed a sobriety test on the driver.
“I asked him if he was going to do a field sobriety test. She’s clearly intoxicated. He said he had no reason to give her one, that she was talking to him perfectly fine,” Elwood said.
Lt. Robert Kozlowsky, spokesman for the Shelton Police Department, said police were not aware of the allegations until the Valley Indy sent an e‑mail Friday seeking comment.
Kozlowsky said they’ll review what happened. He said the first step is to talk to the officers involved. The police may also contact the residents interviewed by the Valley Indy.
“It’s something we’ll look into, but right now we only have one side of the story, not from the officer who was on scene,” Kozlowsky said. “I talked to the chief and he wasn’t aware of this incident.”
Kevin Smith, a New Haven attorney who specializes in DUI and civil rights cases, said the situation described to him by the Valley Indy is unusual.
“That is very atypical,” Smith said. “Certainly the accident alone would give the officers reasonable and articulable suspicion — along with the things people at the scene claimed to have seen — to ask the driver whether or not she would perform a field sobriety test.”
Elwood wrote about the incident on her blog, Momotics. The post can be viewed here.
She also said she e‑mailed a complaint to Mayor Mark Lauretti, several Shelton Aldermen, a few planning and zoning officials, the patrol division of the Shelton Police Department, a neighborhood watch e‑mail address within the police department and to Chris Jones, a Democrat running for mayor.
Haydek said he sent a message about the incident to just about every e‑mail listed on the City of Shelton website.
Several neighbors on Coram Road said the street has a serious problem with speeders — let alone alleged drunk drivers.
The Orosz family put handmade arrows on their property, the site of the June 30 crash, with the hope more drivers won’t lose control on the curve.
