Couple Arrested in Connection to Fatal DUI Hit-and-Run Crash

The Long Beach Post News reports that a husband and wife from Surfside were arrested for their role in a hit-and-run crash that happened near a shopping center in Huntington Beach on Sunday, December 19, 2021.

Jennifer Cary, a spokesperson for the Huntington Beach Police Department, told reporters that the fatal crash happened at approximately 6:40 p.m. near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and 24th Street. HBPD officers responded to the scene to find a man lying in the roadway with injuries consistent with being hit by a motor vehicle.  The man was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Eyewitnesses told police that the driver had fled the scene of the accident.

A short time later, 39-year-old Kimberly Birch returned to the scene of the accident and told officers that she had been driving the couple’s Jeep Grand Cherokee southbound on PCH when she hit the victim. Birch’s 37-year-old husband, Daniel Birch, also returned to the scene some two and a half hours later. 

While interviewing the couple, police determined it was Daniel Birch who had been driving the SUV at the time of the fatal crash.

Police officers arrested Kimberly Birch on the charge of filing a false police report, which is a misdemeanor. Officers arrested Daniel Birch on the felony charge of suspicion of hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death. Investigators have yet to determine whether Daniel Birch was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The investigation is ongoing. Huntington Beach Police are asking anyone with any further information to contact HBPD Traffic Investigator D. Demetre at (714) 536-5670  or Investigator V. Rattanchandani at (714) 536-5231.

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