One person was killed in a three-vehicle collision that shut down the eastbound Pomona Freeway (State Route 60) in Chino, San Bernardino County, in the early hours of Sunday, November 1, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash was reported at about 3:11 a.m. on the eastbound lanes, just west of Central Avenue. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, the CHP said. The identity of the person killed had not been released in the accounts published on Sunday, and no other injuries were reported in them.
Source: Pacific Attorney Group, Nov 1, 2026, reporting the California Highway Patrol
The first calls described a confusing, darkened scene. The CHP's incident log records the first reports at 3:12 a.m.: a grey Toyota blocking the slow lane and a burgundy Honda blocking lanes four and five, with a vehicle described as “blacked out.” Minutes later, officers confirmed a three-vehicle collision just west of Central Avenue — two vehicles on the right-hand shoulder and one in the slow lane, all blacked out. The fire department was notified at 3:14 a.m.
The freeway was shut down and traffic diverted at Ramona
By 3:25 a.m., CHP officers at the scene reported all eastbound lanes stopped, and at 3:28 a.m. they asked Caltrans to set up a full closure, with traffic diverted off the freeway at Ramona Avenue. At 3:33 a.m. the CHP issued a Sig Alert — the patrol's formal warning of an unplanned closure expected to last at least 30 minutes — estimated at about two hours. Anyone driving the Pomona Freeway eastbound through Chino in those hours was routed onto surface streets around the scene while officers, fire crews and tow operators worked.
Coroner called, and every vehicle taken as evidence
At 3:34 a.m., the log records, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Coroner's Division was notified — the step that begins the formal process of identifying the person who died and notifying their family, which is why no name was public on Sunday. Officers also arranged evidence tows for the vehicles: Edwin's Towing was called at 3:31 a.m., and a later log entry confirms three evidence tows were needed. Vehicles impounded as evidence are examined by investigators as part of reconstructing how a fatal crash happened. Caltrans picked up the closure at 6:10 a.m., and the log's final entries, at 6:18 and 6:26 a.m., record the collision as a three-vehicle fatality and the tow yard movements that cleared the scene.
The CHP accounts published on Sunday do not say what caused the three vehicles to collide, which vehicle the person who died was travelling in, or whether anyone else was hurt. The log shows vehicles stopped across the slow lane and lanes four and five in the dark, but investigators have not published a sequence of events. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the CHP or the coroner releases more.
The road: a freight corridor through the Inland Empire
State Route 60 — the Pomona Freeway — is one of the Inland Empire's main east-west arteries, carrying commuter traffic between Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley and the warehouse districts of Chino, Ontario and Fontana, and continuing east toward Riverside and the desert routes. It runs day and night with heavy truck traffic serving the logistics centres along its length, which is why a full closure in the small hours still matters: overnight freight and early-shift drivers are the traffic on this road at 3 a.m., and the Ramona Avenue diversion put them all onto local streets. Chino itself, in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, sits amid some of the largest warehousing and trucking operations in California.
Source: Pacific Attorney Group, Nov 1, 2026, reporting the California Highway Patrol
Why it matters for Punjabi truckers — and what happens next
The Inland Empire's warehouse and trucking economy employs a large Punjabi workforce, and SR-60 is a daily route for drivers based in Chino, Ontario, Fontana and the surrounding cities — the corridor this desk's readers drive for a living. Overnight fatal crashes on freight corridors are a recurring risk of that work: a stopped, darkened vehicle in a live lane, as the first reports here described, is one of the most dangerous scenes a night driver can meet. What happens next is procedural: the CHP's investigation continues with the impounded vehicles, the coroner will release the name of the person killed once family has been notified, and any finding on cause — speed, impairment, a stalled vehicle, lighting — will come from the patrol, not from speculation. No cause has been announced.