Updated at 2 p.m. with name of victim
Corrected the word driveway to left turn lane pocket at 12:30 a.m.
The motorcyclist who fatally crashed with a pickup on Pacific Coast Highway just north of the busy Seventh Street intersection this weekend was speeding, and the truck driver he collided with was cited for an unsafe left turn, Long Beach Police Department said Monday.
The Los Angeles County Coroner identified the fatally injured man as Dominic Tokar, 33, of Long Beach.
Department spokeswoman Lisa Massacani still declined to identify the truck driver cited. But she said the motorcyclist killed was a 33-year-old Long Beach resident, and she offered a few more details about the high-speed collision near the Denny's stretch of PCH.
And this crash wasn't very far from another fatal motorcycle acciden on PCH on the other side of the three-road convergence (PCH, 7th Street and Bellflower).
The earlier crash, which had several witnesses and is right near Ralph's shopping center and Stonybrook apartments, also involved a crash between a high-speed motorcycle and left-turning vehicle; it was preceded by a Seal Beach police pursuit of the motorcycle but the police motor officer dropped off the chase when it reached speeds of 100 m.p.h. That incident occurred about 7:40 a.m. Friday, Feb. 17, on Pacific Coast Highway just west of Channel Drive.
In the latest, at about 8:05 p.m. Saturday, officers were called to the 5500 block of Pacific Coast Highway on a report of a fatal motorcycle crash, Massacani said in a press release. Early reports indicated that the motorcyclist was northbound on PCH, "at a high rate of speed," and slammed into a southbound truck in the process of turning left, Massacani wrote in a new statement Monday.
A Google map shot of that block shows no left turn lane pocket into which a southbound driver would turn in the 5500 block of PCH. It appears there is a large apartment complex on one side of the street and residential nearby on the other side.
The motorcyclist was rushed to a nearby hospital where he later died, and his family has not been notified, Massacani's statement read, continuing: "The driver of the truck, a 66-year-old Long Beach resident, was interviewed, cited for making an unsafe left turn, and released."
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone who may have witnessed the incident or who may have information is asked to contact Long Beach Police Department Accident Investigations Detective Dave Lauro at (562) 570-7322. Anonymous tips via web or text may be submitted by visitng www.tipsoft.com.
