LOS ANGELES_Four people were killed in a car crash Friday night on the 60 Freeway in Moreno Valley that may have been tied to illegal street racing, Riverside County authorities said.
The victims, all of whom were in a white BMW, died at the scene around 7:30 p.m. on the freeway near Redlands Boulevard., said Sgt. Gene Carrillo of the California Highway Patrol. Preliminary statements from witnesses suggest the BMW may have been racing down the freeway against a "dark-colored Honda" shortly before the crash, Carrillo said.
Alcohol may have played a role, he said.
The driver of the BMW lost control and struck a center median, and the car landed on the other side of the highway, according to a CHP traffic incident log published late Friday night.
At the scene, emergency personnel found that the force of the crash had ejected two people from the vehicle. One person was in traffic lanes and the other on the roadside, according to the CHP log. Both died at the scene.
Three people were trapped inside the BMW, two of whom also died at the scene, according to Carrillo. A fifth victim was rescued from the car after firefighters cut apart a section of the damaged vehicle, and she remains hospitalized with "moderate" injuries, Carrillo said.
No other vehicles were struck during the crash, and no one else was injured, Carrillo said. The victims were all adults, according to Carrillo, who said the youngest was 19.
Their identities were not immediately available, he said.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Times analysis of coroner's records, police reports and media accounts found that at least 179 people had died in suspected street races in Los Angeles County since 2000. There were 984 street-racing incidents in Los Angeles County last year _ including spontaneous races and organized events, according to data tracked by the California Highway Patrol.
The Inland Empire has also seen the tragic consequences of the racing scene. Earlier this year, two young boys were killed when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by a driver involved in an impromptu street race in Perris.
Police say street-racing incidents in the area are on the rise, driven in part by racers' ability to promote meet-ups, fuel regional rivalries and adapt to police responses through Instagram accounts. Spontaneous races on freeways and in other crowded areas where drivers might have to weave through pedestrians and other motorists at high speeds sometimes prove the most deadly, police have said.
