Crime & Safety
Coroner IDs Cathedral City Man who Died in Palm Desert Crash
The 21-year-old was a passenger in a truck driven by a suspected drunk driver.
The coroner's office today publicly named the passenger who died in a crash involving an alleged drunken driver in Palm Desert.
Chad Dean, 21, of Cathedral City, was pronounced dead at the scene of the predawn crash Thursday, on southbound Washington Street approaching Wildcat Drive, the Riverside County Coroner's Office reported.
Dean was one of two passengers in a Ford Ranger driven by Willard Douglas, 26, of Indio. The vehicle jumped over the center divider and smashed head-on into a tree north of Wildcat Drive.
It appeared that no one in the truck wore a seat belt, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Douglas and a 26-year-old woman, whose name was not released, were hurt.
Douglas was arrested for suspicion of drunken driving, but remains at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage for treatment of "fairly" major injuries, CHP Sgt. Donald R. Walker said today.
The CHP could possibly recommend the filing of more charges against Douglas as the investigation of the fatal crash progresses, Walker said.
-- City News Service
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