Driver in fatal DUI Lakewood crash was speeding, police say

The 20-year-old woman accused of drunken driving in a fatal Lakewood crash was driving at more than double the speed limit just before the collision, according to court documents.

Lakewood police responded to the crash at Kipling Street and West Sixth Avenue Frontage Road at about 4:50 a.m. on Nov. 30. Days later, one of the victims died from her injuries, police said.

Ella Cromwell was driving a white 2006 Toyota Tundra south on Kipling Street at more than 80 mph in a 40 mph zone just before the crash, according to her arrest affidavit. Police used traffic cameras to track Cromwell’s path and calculate her speed at different points along Kipling Street, the affidavit stated.

Cromwell was driving at about 49 mph just a mile before the crash, police said in the affidavit. By the time she reached Kipling Street and West Eighth Place, roughly 500 feet from the crash intersection, she had reached 81 mph, police said.

As Cromwell reached the intersection of Kipling and West Sixth Avenue Frontage Road, she crashed into another car, police said.

The driver of the 1995 maroon Chevrolet Suburban was turning left from northbound Kipling onto the frontage road, according to court documents. Cromwell struck the rear passenger side of the Chevrolet, causing it to spin violently, police said.

Both the Chevrolet’s driver and its passenger, Selastina Salias, were ejected from the car during the crash, and Cromwell’s truck flipped over, police said.

Paramedics took Salias to the hospital, where she later died from her injuries, police said.

Witnesses who helped Cromwell out of her truck after the crash told police that they could smell alcohol, according to the arrest affidavit.

At the hospital, Cromwell told investigators she had been drinking and smoking THC products before she got in the truck, police said in the affidavit. She admitted to drinking at least four shots of tequila at a concert in Denver.