Man dies more than a year after West Long Beach crash, police say
This is the 54th traffic fatality reported by the LBPD in 2025, making it the deadliest year since at least 1990, data shows.
Long Beach police say they’re investigating the death of a pedestrian who was hit by a car on Pacific Coast Highway near Santa Fe Avenue on Oct. 22, 2024.
Long Beach resident Jason Owens, 35, was walking northbound across PCH outside a marked crosswalk around 8:30 p.m. that night when he was hit by a Honda sedan driving eastbound, police said.
The driver of the sedan stayed at the scene and cooperated with the investigation, according to the LBPD.
Long Beach Fire Department personnel took Owens to a local hospital, according to authorities.
Police said they were notified of Owens' death on July 1 of this year. On Monday, the Los Angeles County Department of the Medical Examiner told LBPD detectives that Owens' death had been related to the 2024 crash.
At this time, police say that they don't believe speed, distracted driving or impaired driving contributed to the collision.
The LBPD is asking anyone who saw the crash to call the LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective David Dougherty at 562-570-7355.
This is the 54th traffic fatality reported by the LBPD this year, making it the deadliest year since at least 1990, when the city reported 51 deaths, according to LBPD data from a recent public records request by the Watchdog.
Traffic deaths hit a low in 1999 with 15, data shows. From 2000 through 2019, the city averaged 26 fatal traffic accidents per year.
In 2020, fatalities reached a 29-year high at 49 and then dipped to 45 deaths in both 2021 and 2022, data shows. That figure dropped to 36 deaths in 2023, but jumped to 44 last year.
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