Police/Fire

Crash leads to arrest

WESTFIELD – A city woman may have learned Friday evening that, when one is driving while intoxicated, it is probably a good idea to stay in one’s designated lane, particularly when the approaching vehicle is a police cruiser.
A caller to the city’s police reported at 10:13 Friday evening that her vehicle had been struck in the rear on North Elm Street by a car which did not stop. The victim of the crash said he had followed the errant vehicle on Elm Street and Main Street and reported that it had turned on to Taylor Avenue.
Patrol officers were notified by radio to be on the lookout for the vehicle, a 2008 Hyundai Elantra, and moments later Officer Seth Florek saw a vehicle approaching, in his lane of travel, on East Silver Street.
Florek locked up the brakes on his cruiser and reports that the offending vehicle came to a stop 5-7 feet from the front of his stopped cruiser.
He reports that when he exited his cruiser and started to approach the stopped car it started to roll forward and he yelled at the operator to stop.
The vehicle, now less than three feet from his cruiser, again came to a stop and he instructed the female operator, later identified as Shirley Grant, 24, of 26 North Longyard Road, Southwick, to put the transmission in “Park” but the woman shut down the engine without engaging the parking gear.
When asked, Grant said that she did not know why the officer stopped her.
When asked about the crash, the woman said that she had not been involved in an accident.
When asked about the damage to the front of her car, which included a bumper that appeared to be in danger of falling off, the woman denied that there was damage to her car.
When asked if she knew where she was, Grant told Florek she was in Southwick and insisted she was right when she was informed she was in Westfield. Later the woman made a closer guess saying that she was on Court Street.
Florek reports that Grant attempted a series of field sobriety tests which, in his opinion, she failed.
Grant was arrested for leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, for operating under the influence of liquor, for a marked lanes violation, for reckless operation of a motor vehicle, for operating a motor vehicle in violation of a license restriction and for an adult seatbelt violation.
She is expected to be arraigned today in Westfield District Court.

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