A motorcyclist was killed Friday night after colliding with a vehicle near Long Beach's Belmont Shore neighborhood, in a crash that police say they are still piecing together. Officers were sent to the 6400 block of Pacific Coast Highway near Second Street for an injury collision, and the rider did not survive.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the motorcyclist had been heading south on Pacific Coast Highway before entering the intersection at East Second Street, where the bike collided with a vehicle traveling east. Paramedics pronounced the rider dead at the scene, Long Beach Police Sgt. Laurie Barajas told the outlet. The driver of the other vehicle stayed at the scene and cooperated with responding officers, police said.
Investigators are looking into speed as a contributing factor in the crash. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact the Long Beach Police Department at 562-570-7110.
A Grim Pattern on Long Beach Streets
A Grim Pattern on Long Beach Streets Friday's death adds to a string of fatal motorcycle crashes that have rattled Long Beach in recent months. In September, a motorcyclist died after running a red light and colliding with an SUV near Atlantic Avenue and Villa Park, according to Patch, with police saying speed was also being investigated as a possible factor in that crash. The Long Beach Post reported that the SUV had been turning left from Villa Park onto northbound Atlantic on a green light when the motorcyclist is alleged to have run the red light heading south, a detail laid out by the Long Beach Post.
Another fatal crash, at the intersection of Second Street and Glendora Avenue, involved two motorcycles and an SUV; that collision killed 35-year-old Taryn Hawk and severely injured 30-year-old Joseph Daroza, per the Long Beach Post's reporting. The repeated toll on the city's motorcyclists has coincided with a broader surge in roadway deaths across Long Beach over the past two years.
2025 Was the Deadliest Year in Decades
Citywide, 56 people died in traffic collisions in Long Beach in 2025, the highest total since at least 1990, according to data cited by the Press-Telegram. Of those deaths, 31 were pedestrians, and a majority occurred across 53 fatal crashes concentrated on the city's major streets, the newspaper reported. A Long Beach police spokeswoman told the Press-Telegram that speeding and pedestrians in the roadway were the two biggest contributing factors behind 2025's fatalities.
The pace has not slowed much this year. Patch reported that six people were killed on Long Beach roads over an 18-day stretch between Sept. 4 and Sept. 21, among them three pedestrians, a bicyclist, a motorcyclist and a man using a wheelchair. The city's Safe Streets program has set a goal of eliminating traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries by 2026, though that remains a stated target rather than an outcome achieved so far, the same report noted.
New Cameras Coming This Winter
Long Beach officials have also rolled out a timeline for a Speed Safety System intended to curb dangerous driving, with warning notices going out this fall and citations expected to begin this winter. The pilot program is scheduled to run through 2031, according to Patch's reporting on the initiative. Whether such measures will reach corridors like Pacific Coast Highway near Belmont Shore remains to be seen as investigators continue examining Friday's deadly crash.
