One man is dead and three other people are in hospital after a high-speed head-on crash overnight, apparently involving a street race on Lougheed Highway in Burnaby.

Witnesses told police that two vehicles – a red sports car and a black Dodge Viper – were racing Sunday night at speeds of nearly 130 kilometres an hour.

RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre said witnesses saw two vehicles racing in the westbound lanes of the Lougheed, when one of the cars crossed the centre line.

"The Viper's driver, a 38-year-old Coquitlam resident, appears to have lost control, struck the centre median, and his vehicle collided with three eastbound vehicles."

The Viper's driver, Igor Shaveyko, died at the scene. The occupants of the three other vehicles are being treated in Royal Columbian and Burnaby hospitals.

Lemaitre said investigators are searching for the other street racer, who was seen talking on his cellphone just before the crash.

"One of the unbelievable facts is that some of the witnesses have told us that the driver of the red vehicle, who we still don't know who that person is, because the vehicle left the scene, was apparently seen speaking on a cellphone prior to the collision."