SAN FRANCISCO -- A woman who inexplicably jumped to her death from the cab of a tow truck pulling her disabled car has been identified a socialite Sue Pritzker, widow of Hyatt Hotel chain founder, Donald Pritzker, who died 10 years ago.
Mrs. Pritzker, 49, was killed when she leaped out of the tow truck and was run over, truck driver David C. Clark told the coroner's office Thursday.
'She seemed intoxicated when I picked the car up and she began asking me if anyone she knew worked at the garage,' Clark said.
'As I rounded the corner at 16th and Folsom, I said, 'Our garage is right up here.' She looked at me as if she was 'spooked' and moved toward the passenger door of the truck. All of a sudden she opened the door and jumped out.'
Clark said Mrs. Pritzker hit her head on the pavement and the truck's rear wheels ran over her. She was pronounced dead at the scene Wednesday afternoon.
The coroners office, which Thursday identified Mrs. Pritzker, said today it could be as much as six weeks before blood tests can be completed to determine whether Mrs. Pritzker had been drinking or taking drugs.
Police said Mrs. Pritzker, of Menlo Park, Calif., had called for the tow truck after she apparently broke the drive shaft of her Cadillac as she drove crossed a set of railroad tracks. A friend said she had been driving downtown to do some shopping.
'This is a terrible tragedy,' Hyatt counsel and family friend Allen Turner said from Chicago, where the corporation is headquartered.
Born Sue Sandel in Chicago, she moved to California in the late 1950s after marrying Pritzker.
She was married a second time to Frank Aries, a Tucson, Ariz., developer and they were divorced.
Mrs. Pritzker was active in social and community affairs in San Francisco and on the San Francisco Peninsula. She was involved in numerous charitable works for the Peninsula Children's Center, the San Francisco Art Institute, the San Francisco Opera Guild, the Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Welfare Federation.
She is survived by three children, Penny, 23, Toni, 21, and Robert, 17. Funeral services were scheduled today at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills. She will be buried in Chicago.
