Dine-and-dash ends in fatal car wreck in Phoenix

PHOENIX — Two people were killed and a woman was seriously injured in a car accident Thursday night after a dine-and-dash went wrong in west Phoenix.

Police said a couple purposefully left a restaurant near 75th Avenue and McDowell Road without paying, speeding out of the parking lot around 9 p.m. The couple eventually crashed head-on into another car at 67th Avenue and Van Buren Street. Both drivers died. The woman who had been at the restaurant was in critical condition in a hospital.

Restaurant employees called police when the couple ran out on their tab, after chasing them to the parking lot. Police in patrol cars trailed them briefly, before backing off. Officers in aircraft picked up the chase until the couple’s car shot through an intersection. The driver lost control, and slammed into the other car.