Citizen Staff
By IRENE HSIAO
ihsiao@tucsoncitizen.com
A woman killed in a car crash early Wednesday was driving 77 mph before she lost control in a 40-mph zone, police said yesterday.
Cassidy M. Cates, 18, who died at the scene, was eastbound on Grant Road near Tanque Verde Road at about 1 a.m. when she crashed.
Someone who was with Cates on Tuesday evening told police they had been drinking at a restaurant, but that doesn’t mean alcohol was involved in the crash, Tucson police Sgt. Tim Beam said.
Toxicology results should be back in three or four weeks, he said.
Just before the wreck, witnesses saw a car that matched the description of Cates’ car flee after hitting a vehicle in a parking lot near East Grant Road and North Alvernon Way, Beam said.
Officers tried to make a traffic stop, but the driver fled, Beam said. They did not chase the car because the situation did not meet the department’s threshold for pursuit, he said.
Cates, of the 11000 block of East Quickdraw Place, attended Sabino High School during the 2002-03 school year, said Estella Zavala, a Tucson Unified School District spokeswoman.