A 33-year-old Westminster man died after his motorcycle slammed into the back of an SUV on a Huntington Beach street early Wednesday morning, police said. Officers were called to Newland Street and Talbert Avenue at about 5:30 a.m. and found the motorcycle rider down in the roadway. He was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Huntington Beach Police Department is investigating the fatal crash between the motorcycle and an SUV. Police said the motorcyclist was riding a red Kawasaki southbound on Newland Street, north of Talbert, when he struck the rear of a white Volkswagen Tiguan.
The driver of the Volkswagen, a 57-year-old Garden Grove man, remained at the scene as required, the Times reported. He sustained no injuries and cooperated with investigators, and police said they believe he was not impaired at the time of the crash. Investigators have not determined whether impairment played a role for the motorcyclist, according to police.
Identification Still Pending for Some Outlets
While the Times identified the motorcyclist only by his age and hometown, a separate account from Patch reported that he had not been immediately identified. Police have not released further details about his identity beyond his age and city of residence.
Investigators are asking anyone who witnessed the collision, or who saw the events leading up to it, to come forward. HBPD traffic investigator Vishal Rattanchandani can be reached at (714) 536-5231, per the department's request relayed by the Times.
A Familiar Stretch of Road for Serious Crashes
Wednesday's crash is not the first fatal motorcycle collision to hit Huntington Beach in recent years. In October 2024, a motorcyclist was killed near Beach Boulevard and Taylor Drive in a crash involving a 2024 Yamaha R1 and a 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLS450, according to the Times. That rider was later identified by the Orange County Sheriff's Department as 24-year-old Bailey Dominic Vasquez of Rosemead.
That same foggy weekend in 2024, Huntington Beach police responded to three separate motorcycle collisions within roughly a 24-hour span, the Times reported, including a second crash that left another rider with moderate injuries while the other driver involved was unhurt. More recently, in July, a 21-year-old man died after losing control of an e-bike at Warner Avenue and Plaza Lane while riding westbound; he was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries days later, the Times reported.
That July collision was cited as part of a broader rise in e-bike incidents across the state. Researchers at UC San Diego found that e-bike riders were involved in at least 4,035 collisions in California between 2018 and 2024, and that those riders tend to suffer more severe injuries than people in traditional bicycle crashes, according to the Times. Separately, the California Office of Traffic Safety has reported that statewide motorcyclist deaths fell to 583 in 2023 from 649 the year before.
No further details about the Wednesday crash, including the motorcyclist's name, have been released. Police have not said whether any citations or further enforcement action are planned as the investigation continues.
