A 52-year-old woman is facing impaired driving charges after allegedly killing a cyclist and crashing her SUV while being trailed by police early Thursday morning.

Insp. Dave Fleugel says the suspect was behind the wheel of a white Kia Sportage that crossed paths with an RCMP cruiser just before 3 a.m. while speeding down Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge.

The officer pulled a quick U-turn and tried to catch up to the SUV to pull it over.

"Once he got to a point where he felt the driver of the vehicle would be able to see him activate his emergency lights, he did so," Fleugel said in a statement.

Mounties say the Kia continued on, however, eventually striking a cyclist head-on then veering off-road where it crashed, rolled over and landed back on its tires. The vehicle then burst into flames.

The officer arrived at the scene shortly after and used a fire extinguisher from his cruiser to put out the flames.

Fleugel said the Mountie had tried to conduct a traffic stop, but insisted he was not chasing the SUV when it crashed.

"I wouldn't categorize it as a pursuit. That's not the information we have," he told CTV News Thursday morning.

The cyclist, a 20 to 40-year-old man, was tossed into a wooded area near the shoulder of the road. His body was located later by a Police Dog Service team.

His name has not been released pending notification of next of kin.

Investigators believe alcohol was a factor in the collision, and say the SUV driver, an unnamed Maple Ridge resident, is facing a charge of impaired driving causing death.

Anyone who may have witnessed the white Kia driving in the area is asked to call the Ridge Meadows RCMP at 604-463-6251.