(This story was updated because an earlier version contained an inaccuracy.)
A 26-year-old man died Jan. 4 when his motorcycle struck a truck in front of a shopping plaza near William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Paramedics pronounced Spencer Holden, a resident of Palm Beach Country Estates west of Interstate 95, dead at the scene of the crash, the 4600 block of Donald Ross Road in front of the Donald Ross Village shopping plaza between Military Trail and Central Boulevard.
A 2017 Toyota Tacoma pickup had started turning left across Donald Ross from the westbound lanes when Holden’s eastbound 2025 Kawasaki motorcycle “rapidly closed the gap between the two vehicles” and hit the truck’s passenger side just after 9:30 a.m., investigators said.
The force of the crash threw Holden from the motorcycle and broke the bike into pieces, the sheriff’s office said. It also made the pickup spin 180 degrees before coming to a stop.
The sheriff did not indicate that any charges are pending against driver of the pickup, a 26-year-old Jupiter Farms man who reported minor injuries.
There also was no indication that either drugs or alcohol played any role in the crash. Holden was wearing a helmet and the pickup driver a seat belt when their vehicles collided.
The sheriff’s report did not say how fast either vehicle was traveling at the moment the wreck happened, but investigators said Holden appeared to be riding “at a high rate of speed” in the moments just before it.
Tom Elia is an editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at telia@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Gardens-area man, 26, dies in motorcycle crash on Donald Ross Road
Reporting by Tom Elia, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
