Driver ticketed after passenger killed in South Shore crash

A woman was issued traffic citations after her passenger was killed in a single-vehicle crash Wednesday morning in the South Shore neighborhood.

The 31-year-old woman was driving north in the alley of the 6800 block of South East End Avenue at 5:52 a.m. when she struck a utility pole, according to Chicago Police.

The driver tried to run away, but was taken into custody by responding officers, police said.

Her passenger, 40-year-old Thaddeus Pitts, was extricated from the vehicle and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the same block.

The driver was issued citations for no driver’s license, no insurance, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, speeding, and leaving the scene of an accident, police said. She was scheduled to appear in traffic court at 1 p.m. on Oct. 12.