Long Beach police step up enforcement as traffic deaths climb in 2026

Long Beach police announced a crackdown on traffic violations Friday after the city recorded 22 fatal collisions so far in 2026 — nearly 40 percent of the 56 deaths that occurred across all of 2025, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

The surge in fatalities — including a 3-year-old killed in March — has intensified calls for traffic safety action in Long Beach and drawn broader attention to reckless driving across Southern California communities.

"When we see an increase in traffic fatalities; when we see people losing their lives in traffic collisions, it's devastating," Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish said, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Hebeish said he has personally borne witness to child deaths on city streets. "I've seen children that have died behind unfortunate tragedies with vehicle collisions, and it's heartbreaking," he said.

Among the recent deaths, a 3-year-old was killed March 2 when a driver backing up jumped a curb and struck three people sitting on the front steps of a home. Roughly a month earlier, cyclist Lori Ann Carreon, 54, was killed in a separate collision.

Christianne Zah-Webber, a Long Beach resident who knew Carreon, called for infrastructure improvements at what she described as a dangerous stretch. "It's just a huge tragedy that we lost Lori Ann," she said. "It would be great if we had a traffic light here," Zah-Webber told ABC7.

Fellow resident Edward Andrew Boswell described a pattern of reckless driving near the same corridor. "This particular intersection is simply an accident waiting to happen," Boswell said. He cited a past incident in which a vehicle passed through the area at 90 miles per hour.

Hebeish said increased enforcement would be paired with a broader awareness push directed at drivers and pedestrians alike. "Sometimes we forget that vehicles are extremely dangerous, and our bodies are not meant to collide with a vehicle," he said. "If the pedestrian is aware of their surroundings, and the person behind the wheel is aware of where they're driving, I think that can make us all safer," the chief added.

Residents called on the city to pair enforcement with infrastructure improvements — including traffic signals and speed bumps — at intersections with a documented history of serious crashes.