WESTPORT — A woman involved in a single-car crash on Cross Highway was driving while impaired, police said.
Sholeh Weinbaum, 61, was charged Sept 22 with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failure to drive in the proper lane in connection with the accident, which took place nearly a year earlier.
A single-car accident was reported to police about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 30, 2022, in the area of 188 Cross Highway.
An officer dispatched to the scene found the driver — later identified as Weinbaum — still seated in the vehicle.
The officer suspected Weinbaum may have been under the influence at the time because an odor of alcohol was detected, her speech was slurred and she was unable to recall how the crash occurred, according to the police report.
She was transported from the accident scene to a hospital.
After concluding the investigation into circumstances of the accident, a warrant for Weinbaum’s arrest was issued.
She turned herself in Sept. 22 at Police Department headquarters, where she was formally charged and later released after posting $5,000 bond. She is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 16 at state Superior Court in Stamford.
There are over 66 police reports in recent history at the bend in the road at 188 Cross Hwy. This is the Bermuda Triangle in Westport. 188 and across the street 177 cross Hwy make a bend in the road responsible for some spectacular accidents. One is dubbed the flying Prius Incident is famous in the annuals of insurance companies for flying his Prius through the air upside-down landing and sliding on the stone wall throwing the rocks as far as 200ft. As Recently as a year ago, there was a study done by the town for incidents at the intersections of Cross Hay at Bayberry and North because of the number of accidents. I tried to point out to the civil engineer doing the study this bend in the road at 177 Cross Hwy doesn’t have a proper “line of sight” which is the root cause of the line of sight problem. They added two small cryptic signs instead of knocking down the hill obstructing the view at the 175-177 cross highway side of the road. The two small signs didn’t do their job, and more incidents and probably deaths will follow. The only effective solution, short of preventing bad driving, is to take out the small hill in the town right of way that is causing line of sight obstruction. Do we need to wait till someone dies?