A passenger suffered life-threatening injuries when a suspected impaired driver crashed into a utility pole on 16th Street in St. Petersburg on Monday afternoon.

The driver, Carly Lauren Arthur, 20, also was seriously injured in the 2:37 p.m. crash. She and passenger Brooke Michelle Bird, 19, were taken to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

According to police, Arthur's 2009 Nissan Sentra was traveling north on 16th Street when it jumped the east curb, continued about 40 feet along the tree line and then crashed into a concrete utility pole. The force threw the car back onto the roadway.

Neither woman was wearing a seat belt. Charges against Arthur are pending the results of blood tests, police said.