Teen girl dies after car crash, police say
This is the 57th traffic fatality reported by the LBPD in 2025, making it the deadliest year since at least 1990s, data shows.
Long Beach police say a 16-year-old girl has died of her injuries following a two-car crash Tuesday night.
The girl was a passenger in a 2007 Saturn Aura, driven by a 17-year-old male teen, that was heading southbound on Long Beach Boulevard just south of Wardlow Road around 8:20 p.m. on Dec. 23. The driver made a lane change and collided with a 2021 Jeep Wrangler, police said.
Long Beach Fire Department personnel treated both teens before taking them to a local hospital in critical condition, according to authorities.
The driver of the Jeep, who was uninjured, remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, police added.
On Dec. 24, LBPD detectives learned that the teen girl had died of her injuries, police said, declining to release her name because of her age.
At this time, police said they believe that speed and distracted driving may have been contributing factors in the crash.
Police are asking anyone who saw the crash to call the LBPD Collision Investigation Detail at 562-570-7358.
This is the 57th 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.
We need your support.
Subcribe to the Watchdog today.
The Long Beach Watchdog is owned by journalists, and paid for by readers like you. If independent, local reporting like the story you just read is important to you, support our work by becoming a subscriber.
