Hartford — Three women were arrested Monday might after troopers stopped a vehicle traveling the wrong direction on Interstate 84, according to state police.

Around 10:30 p.m., a trooper entering the highway at exit 44 observed a Jeep traveling west in the eastbound lanes, then drive into the grass on the side of the road to turn around, state police said. The trooper stopped the SUV and determined that its registration was expired. The driver, Brenda Crespo, 34, also was unable to provide proof of insurance, state police said.

Troopers observed an empty alcoholic drink bottle in the Jeep so Brenda Crespo was asked to step out to participate in field sobriety tests. However, state police said that the front seat passenger, Esmeralda Crespo, 32, exited the Jeep as well and refused to get back in when troopers asked her to.

Both women began ignoring further instructions from troopers and eventually became combative and resisted when troopers tried to to put them in handcuffs, according to state police. Esmeralda Crespo continued to resist troopers when they tried putting her in a cruiser, which led to them using pepper spray to get her inside, state police said.

At that point a third passenger, Jennifer Crespo, 25, began to interfere with the investigation too and was also taken into custody, according to state police.

Around the same time, Brenda Crespo managed to escape from a cruiser, state police said. They were eventually all placed into separate cruisers and transported to Troop H in Hartford.

Brenda Crespo was charged with driving the wrong way on a divided highway, failure to renew registration, failure to carry insurance card, interfering with police, and escape from custody.

Esmeralda and Jennifer Crespo were charged with interfering with police, and Jennifer was additionally charged with failure to identify.