A preliminary hearing has been set for a former Shasta County Sheriff’s Deputy who faces criminal charges from a fatal crash that occurred while he was on duty. Just after 8 O’clock on November 6th of 2019, Deputy Henry Taylor was responding to a non-emergency call for service that was over an hour and half old. He was apparently driving a patrol vehicle at around 110 miles an hour with no emergency lights or siren on Highway 299 west of Lower Springs Road when he hit a deer. That sent the Sheriff’s Department Ford Explorer into the oncoming lane, where it collided head-on with a Toyota sedan. There were three occupants in the Toyota, which caught fire after the crash. Another deputy and passing drivers rescued the 20-year-old woman who was driving and her 2-year-old daughter, who had major injuries. As the fire began to grow, the rescuers were unable to save an unconscious male passenger, and he died. Taylor was trapped but uninjured in his patrol vehicle down an embankment. Taylor was apparently never interviewed by CHP investigators after the crash. He ended his 7 year employment with the Sheriff’s Department in December. On Tuesday the court set a preliminary hearing date of May 18th, when it will be determined whether Taylor will stand trial for felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and two counts of felony reckless driving causing injury.