PHOENIX - Authorities say one person has died after a taxi went off the freeway and hit a pole near 40th Street and Interstate 10 in Phoenix.

The victim has been identified by the Department of Public Safety as 70-year-old Darlene Davidson of Felch, Michigan. She was a passenger in the taxi.

Phoenix fire Capt. Benjamin Santillan said crews from Phoenix and Tempe received a call around 1:30 p.m. for a motor vehicle collision.

When crews arrived, they found a small taxi with three people inside had crashed into a pole.

Santillan said once all the people were out of the vehicle, the car’s engine compartment went up in flames.

Linda Smith had just pulled into the Stone Creek Furniture parking lot when the taxi whizzed by the front of her vehicle.

“I was parked in my car, I was reaching down to get my purse, and I heard but did not see the accident,” Smith said.

She ran inside the store to ask for help, before performing CPR on one of the passengers.

“Customer comes running through the door frantic, caught us all by surprise,” said Tim Brundage who works at the furniture store. “Instinct kicks in, you start running around scrambling, doing what you can do for people in need. [The] car was starting to catch on fire,” he said.

The other two people in the car include a man in his 70s who was transported in critical condition and a woman in her 30s who was also transported in critical condition.

Witnesses say the younger woman was the driver of the taxi.

The vehicle was traveling westbound on Interstate 10 when it went through a chain link fence before hitting the pole.

The cause of the collision is unknown and currently being investigated by Phoenix police and Department of Public Safety officers.