By Keith Heffintrayer | North Penn Now
Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office/Wissahickon Fire Company
A Bucks County man is facing upgraded charges of homicide by vehicle after the victim of a February crash on Route 309 died from injuries sustained in the incident.
Court records show Daniel Selby Jr., 31, of Fountainville, was officially charged Thursday afternoon with felony counts of homicide by vehicle while DUI, homicide by vehicle, and accidents involving death or injury while not licensed, stemming from the Feb. 10 incident in Lower Gwynedd Township.
Selby is currently being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $50,000 cash bail.
Selby first drew regional headlines in June 2017 after he escaped from the Bucks County Correctional Facility in Central Bucks County while awaiting proceedings on drug charges. His escape prompted the lockdown of several Bucks County schools, as well as shelter-in-place orders for residents in Warrington Township and Chalfont Borough, according to reports.
He was taken into custody several days later, and his father, Daniel Selby Sr., was charged with hindering apprehension, aiding consummation of crime, and obstructing administration of law, for aiding his son during his escape.
Pennsylvania State Police were initially dispatched to the scene of a multi-vehicle crash along the southbound lanes of Route 309 in Lower Gwynedd Township at 11:07 p.m. Upon arrival, they encountered a Honda sedan that had sustained heavy damage to the front and rear of the vehicle, as well as a Dodge Ram pickup truck that had sustained heavy front-end damage.
The driver of the Honda became entrapped in their vehicle as a result of the crash, and they were later extricated from the vehicle and transported via ambulance to Abington Hospital. Police said the driver was unconscious at the scene and had sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. A follow up by Lower Gwynedd Township Police indicated the driver was placed in critical condition and had been intubated, according to the complaint.
The victim — an unidentified male — died in the days following the crash, and the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office listed his cause of death as blunt impact trauma on Feb. 14 following an autopsy, police said.
The criminal complaint states a crash reconstruction specialist with the state police determined the damage profiles of the pickup truck and the sedan were consistent with a high-speed, offset, rear-end collision, with Selby’s truck identified as the striking vehicle.
Police on scene said Selby exhibited multiple signs of impairment, including a lack of coordination, bloodshot eyes, and slow, low, and raspy speech. Selby failed several field sobriety tests and exhibited both eye lid and body tremors, police said.
The complaint states Selby had a runny nose and complained of being hot and sweating even though he was standing outside in the cold wearing jeans, a jacket, and a winter hat. After placing Selby under arrest for DUI, police said they recovered two plastic vials from his vehicle that contained a white residue suspected to be cocaine and noted that multiple hypodermic needles were observed spread throughout Selby’s truck.
Selby refused to consent to a blood draw, stating “it may not be good for him,” however police secured a search warrant several hours later to draw two vials of Selby’s blood for testing, according to charging documents.
The results of those tests showed Selby had cocaine and fentanyl in his system at the time of the crash, police said.
Selby was initially charged with felony aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment and DUI – second offense, however those charges were upgraded during Selby’s preliminary hearing on March 30 due to the death of the victim, court records show.
Court records show Selby has had multiple prior convictions in Montgomery and Bucks counties, including multiple DUI and drug offenses.
Court records also show Selby pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of driving without a license earlier this week at the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas. He was subsequently sentenced to six to 12 months in jail along with a $2,500 fine, and then transferred to Montgomery County to serve his sentence while awaiting proceedings on the new charges.
Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
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