The trooper immediately requested a tow truck, parked his cruiser in the left high-speed lane of the two-lane northbound section of the Interstate, and activated his emergency rear-flashing lights to warn northbound traffic. The trooper then walked down the hill to the Toyota Yaris and observed one woman in the driver's seat, who was later identified as the defendant. When the trooper, who was in full uniform, reached the passenger-side front window and knocked, the defendant glanced at him and then returned her attention to the steering wheel; she tried to start the vehicle, which was already running, and steer the stationary vehicle out of the ditch. Clothing and bags were strewn about inside the vehicle "consistent with a crash." The trooper noticed the defendant's eyes were glassy and bloodshot and when he opened the passenger door he immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol. The defendant said "she must have spun out on some black ice and she was waiting for a friend" to help her. Her speech was slurred and "thick-tongued" making it difficult for the trooper to understand her. The defendant said she was driving home from work at the Mardi Gras II in East Windsor, Connecticut, an establishment the trooper believed served alcohol.