Unbelted Passenger Ejected, Driven Over by Truck

A horrific fatal accident occurred on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach when an eastbound SUV turned left and northbound onto Martin Luther King, Junior Ave., and was struck by a westbound big-rig, Long Beach Police said Monday evening.

The Chevy Blazer driver and his front seat passenger were not wearing seat belts and both were ejected from the SUV onto the roadway, at which point the passenger was run over the by big-rig truck, the Long Beach Police Department said in a news release.

"The decedent has been identified as Sonia Esperanza Rodriguez, a 54-year-old Long Beach resident. The 48-year-old driver of the Blazer and 21-year-old passenger are both male residents of Long Beach," the police statement reads. The driver and backseat passenger suffered what appeared to be only minor injuries in the 9:14 a.m. collision. 

The driver of the tractor-trailer truck was not named but police said he is 29 and from Valencia. He was interviewed but not cited, said police spokeswoman Lisa Massacani, in a news release.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Long Beach Police Department Accident Investigations Detail Detectives Dave Lauro at (562) 570-7355. Anonymous tips may be submitted via text or web by visiting www.tipsoft.com.

--with City News Service reporting