Man pleads not guilty in deadly hit and run crash
Felony charges were filed Wednesday against an allegedly intoxicated and drugged driver accused of ramming his pickup truck into a motor scooter in Palm Springs on Independence Day, killing the rider and fleeing with
the scooter lodged in the truck’s front.
David Buckley Doyle, 55, of Palm Springs, pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to one count each of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence, and hit-and-run causing death.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Johnson raised his bail from $75,000 to $250,000 and scheduled a July 21 felony settlement conference.
Doyle was driving south in a GMC pickup truck on North Indian Canyon Drive, near Tamarisk Road, about 11:35 a.m. last Friday when he allegedly veered into northbound lanes and into a Yamaha motor scooter heading the other direction, Palm Springs police Lt. Mike Kovaleff said.
Mark Norton, 53, of Palm Springs was ejected and landed a distance away. He died at the scene.
Police found the truck about a mile from the crash site with the motor scooter “affixed” to it, Kovaleff said. Doyle was arrested shortly afterward and booked into the Larry D. Smith
Correctional Facility in Banning.
The criminal complaint alleges that he was driving “under the combined influence of an alcoholic beverage and a drug,” but didn’t specify what those were.
