Driver Had BAC Well Over Legal Limit at Time of Deadly Waterbury Crash: Cops

The Waterbury woman charged with manslaughter in the drunken driving crash that killed a 20-year-old Friday night was driving with a blood alcohol content well over the legal limit, according to the police report.

Albertina Lopes, 48, was on her way home from a bar in Naugatuck when her Honda began swerving "all over the road," a witness told police. She hit a snowbank and a young woman who later died of severe head trauma, police said.

Authorities identified the victim as Natalis Montalvo, 20, and said she was walking along Meriden Road near Southmayd Road when Lopes struck her around 10:40 p.m. Friday, according to Deputy Chief Christopher Corbett.

Another driver followed Lopes to her home on Woodtick Road, where he called 911, according to the case report. Officers arrived to find Lopes' side-view mirror broken off and dangling and said her windshield was "shattered in a round, indented pattern about the size of a person's head."

Lopes failed field sobriety tests, and two breath tests revealed her BAC to be .1386 and .1323, according to the incident report. The legal limit to drive in Connecticut is .08.

Police found Montalvo lying in the street, bloody and unresponsive. She was rushed to St. Mary's Hospital and kept on life support until her out-of-state family could be contacted, according to police.

Lopes was arrested at her home and charged with second-degree manslaughter, felony evading responsibility, reckless driving, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and operating without insurance.

She appeared in court Monday, where her bond was lowered from $750,000 to $500,000.

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