Theodore Abraham Resnick, 33, of San Francisco was making a left turn in his white 1998 Dodge Neon about 1 a.m. when he was struck by a speeding 2001 Pontiac Bonneville that ran a red light at San Pablo and Ashby avenues, authorities said.

Resnick, a senior marketing manager at Women.com in San Mateo, died instantly, officials said.

The driver of the rented Pontiac, convicted drunken-driver Lyle Eric Norbert, 41, of Suisun City, tried to flee after the crash but was quickly arrested, authorities said. Officers smelled alcohol on his breath, said CHP Officer Annie Greenfield.

Three minutes before the fatal crash, Norbert had refused to pull over in El Cerrito, where CHP officers in a marked cruiser believed that he was driving under the influence, Greenfield said.

Norbert was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland for treatment of minor injuries. When he is released, he will be booked at Berkeley City Jail on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter, felony evading arrest, felony hit- and-run and drunken driving, authorities said. He had also been sought on a $30,000 CHP warrant for failing to appear on a marijuana charge last year.

The tragedy, the latest in a number of Bay Area fatalities linked to police pursuits, underscored the dangers of such chases -- especially those involving chronic drunken drivers who repeatedly get behind the wheel.

Friends of Resnick mourned yesterday a humorous man who was dedicated to his job at Women.com, a Web site designed for women.

Resnick's job was to get the Web site linked to as many others as possible to boost its presence on the Internet, said Women.com spokeswoman Becca Perata- Rosati

"Ted was a great friend to many people," Perata-Rosati said. "We're just really in shock."

Jackie Curry, who worked with Resnick at Women.com for several years, said he was "a good guy who was one of the few people I knew that really liked their work."

Resnick, who was single, enjoyed music and liked playing trivia with employees at a local pub, Curry said. "We could always count on him to answer tough trivia questions," she said.

The chase began at 12:57 a.m. yesterday when Oakland-based CHP officers Brent Pucci and George Carpenter saw a man in a Pontiac driving erratically near San Pablo and Santa Cruz avenues, near the Richmond-El Cerrito border, Greenfield said.

The officers, riding together in a marked Ford Crown Victoria cruiser, activated their lights and siren to stop Norbert, believing he was drunk, but he sped off, heading south on San Pablo, Greenfield said.

Because the traffic was light and the weather was relatively clear, the officers decided to continue chasing the Pontiac into Berkeley, Greenfield said.

At one point, the officers lost sight of the Pontiac and slowed down, while turning off the siren, Greenfield said. Near Ashby Avenue, the officers spotted the Pontiac again and activated their lights and siren, but the car sped up, authorities said.

Around 1 a.m., the Pontiac collided with Resnick's car as he tried to turn left from northbound San Pablo onto westbound Ashby on a green-arrow light.

At the time of the crash, the suspect's car was traveling faster than the speed limit of 35 mph, although its exact speed was still being determined, authorities said.

Also unclear yesterday was how close the CHP cruiser was to the Pontiac at the time of the crash, Greenfield said.

Norbert has had his driver's license suspended six times since 1997 for having an excessive blood alcohol level, according to records with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. At the time of yesterday's crash, his license was suspended, and he was on probation until 2002 because of his driving problems.

Besides a 1999 conviction for drunken driving, Norbert was convicted of reckless driving for a five-car hit-and-run crash in San Francisco on Halloween 1997.

In that incident, Norbert crashed a white Ford Mustang into five parked cars near 26th and Noe streets and fled the scene, according to the police report. At the time, he was driving on a suspended license and was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

"I don't know who was driving," Norbert, his eyes bloodshot, said when police caught up with him nearby, the report said. After pleading guilty in 1998, he was given three years' probation and credit for time served.

Court records show that Norbert has a long arrest history for other offenses. He was jailed for six months in 1984 for carrying a concealed weapon in his vehicle. In 1988, he was sentenced to a year in state prison for a narcotics charge.

His longtime attorney, Pam Herzig of San Francisco, expressed surprise about the fatal crash.

''I've represented him in a number of cases," Herzig said yesterday. "I find him to be an extremely pleasant and affable client. He has always done whatever the court has required of him."

Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken and Chuck Squatriglia contributed to this report. / E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle