Fiery crash near Long Beach Airport kills 4, police say
A car hit the center divider on Lakewood Boulevard beneath the airport runway shortly after midnight, according to authorities.
Police are investigating the death of four people whose car crashed in the Lakewood Boulevard tunnel beneath the Long Beach Airport runway shortly after midnight.
Long Beach police say two men and two women of unknown ages were in a 2008 Honda Accord traveling southbound on Lakewood Boulevard around 1:18 a.m. when it hit the center median curb. The driver of the Accord then lost control and the car hit the underpass center support wall, police added.
Soon after the car was engulfed in flames, according to police and video posted by the Long Beach Fire Department on its Instagram channel via Long Beach Local News.
Long Beach Fire Department personnel extinguished the fire and attempted to aid a woman who was found outside the vehicle, according to authorities. That woman and the remaining three people in the car were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The names of all four people are being withheld while the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office works to identify them and notify their next of kin, police said.
Police said speed and impairment are being investigated as possible factors in the crash.
Police are asking anyone who may have seen the crash and can identify the driver to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective Ashley Van Holland at 562-570-7355.
There are now 12 traffic fatalities reported by the LBPD in 2026. Last year, the department reported 56 traffic-related fatalities from 53 crashes, making it the deadliest year on the road since at least 1990, when the city reported 51 deaths, according to LBPD data from a public records request by the Watchdog.
The LBPD reported just two traffic fatalities by this time last year.
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