Well, it was a busy New Years Eve for us. We hope everyone celebrated safely and Happy New Year to you! ****PRESS RELEASE**** The Stamford Police Department made its first arrest for operating under the influence in 2015 just 2 hours into the New Year. K -9 Sgt. Richard Phelan who was blocking off a motor vehicle crash scene was struck by an alleged drunk driver. The first crash was caused by at 14 year old who took his parents vehicle without permission. The youth struck a telephone pole and snapped it in half at Hope Street and Plymouth Road at 12:13 a.m. This caused power lines to be down in the roadway so the road had to be closed. The sergeant had north bound traffic on Hope Street blocked off at Rock Spring Road with orange cones and his patrol vehicle which had its emergency lights on. At 2:05 a.m. a vehicle operated by Edward Salazar-Martinez, age 28 of Hope Street was travelling north on Hope Street and drove through the traffic cones and struck the sergeant who was outside of his vehicle. Salazar-Martinez failed field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest and transported to Police Headquarters. He refused to take a breath test. He was charged with Operating Under the Influence, Operating with a Suspended Motor Vehicle License and Striking an Officer with a Motor Vehicle. He was released on a $5,000 appearance bond with a court date of January 14th. The sergeant was treated for a minor injury to his leg and was released from the hospital. These two events were book ends to several other serious calls. At 12:33 a.m. there was a stabbing and single gunshot fired in an incident at 720 Bedford Street and there were two accidents with injuries at 1:23 a.m. (Grove St and Forest St.) and 1:50 a.m. (Vine Road). The City of Stamford saw a difficult traffic year with 6 motor vehicle crashes resulting in 7 fatalities. The Department has increased its enforcement action by creating a Traffic Squad which consists of a sergeant and three officers. The squad issued over 3,000 tickets and the department made 131 Operating Under the Influence arrests in 2014. 11 of the OUI arrests occurred during the Christmas season by extra patrols which were funded by CT DOT grants.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:12:25 +0000
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