Deputies: Woman Fled Traffic Stop and Crash

A woman accused of fleeing a traffic stop was arrested after authorities say she ran through a stop sign and red light, then tried to flee on foot after her car got two flat tires.

A Manatee County Sheriff's Deputy tried to stop a silver Cadillac with no tail lights around 2:25 a.m. Tuesday at Fifth Street West and Cortez Road. When the deputy turned on his lights, the Cadillac fled southbound on Fifth "at a high rate of speed," according to a sheriff's report.

The deputy didn't give chase, officials said, but watched the car as it headed south. The Cadillac went through a stop sign at Orlando Avenue without stopping for another vehicle waiting to turn north, then sped through the light at Fifth and 53rd Avenue, the report states.

The driver was unable to negotiate the turn, jumping a curb into an empty parking lot just west of Wells Fargo Bank, according to the deputy. The car grazed a concrete traffic light pole, destroyed a Verizon cable box on the ground, then continued forward on two flat tires for another 200 feet before stopping.

The alleged driver, 21-year-old Ashley Blake, and another man ran out of the vehicle and into a neighborhood off Third Street West, the report states. The deputy and a K9, Rex, tracked them both to the 5400 block of Third Street, where Blake was found in a front yard. She "immediately gave up and spontaneously stated that she was driving the car," the report states.

The other man could not be located.

Blake is charged with aggravated fleeing to elude, resisting arrest without violence, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, felony driving while license suspended/revoked and possession of marijuana, authorities said.

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