Suspected DUI driver dies in crash near CSULB, police say
The man was driving a Tesla on PCH when he hit a car exiting a shopping center Saturday night, authorities said.
Police are investigating a crash near Cal State Long Beach that left one man dead and two women injured Saturday night.
Long Beach police say a man was driving a 2026 Tesla westbound on the 5700 block of Pacific Coast Highway around 10:25 p.m. at a high rate of speed when he hit a 2025 Volkswagen exiting a shopping center.
The Tesla then jumped the curb and struck a cinder block wall, which damaged several vehicles parked nearby, police added. After the impact the Volkswagen then struck a sign, according to police.
Long Beach Fire Department personnel took the driver of the Tesla to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, according to authorities.
The man's identity was not released because the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner is still working to identify him and notify his next of kin, police said.
Fire personnel also took the Volkswagen occupants, identified only as two women aged 48 and 43, to local hospitals, according to the LBPD. The extent of their injuries is unknown at press time.
At this time, the LBPD said it believes that speed and impaired driving appear to have been factors in the crash.
Authorities are asking anyone who may have seen the crash to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective Dougherty at 562-570-7355.
This is the 33rd traffic fatality 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 37 traffic fatalities by this time last year.
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