On the morning of a windless Saturday in late July 2018, Chico surgeon William Doherty parked his car at the Chico airport, unloaded his Trek Domane road bike, and rode northeast along Cohasset Road.
Cycle Oregon—a weeklong ride Doherty had participated in for many years—was around the corner. Doherty was training on Cohasset, where the road climbs up to the town on the ridge, to get ready for the Oregon trip.
He rode on the narrow bike lane at the beginning of the route. After about 7 miles, the road narrows and the lane on the shoulder disappears. Cyclists consider this part of the road dangerous, and Doherty had even created a term for it—“Paranoia Alley.”
Not long after he started climbing “Paranoia Alley,” Doherty noticed a ragged crumbling at the edge of a patch of roadway and steered around it. Meanwhile, Jim Voyles, who was driving to Cohasset to work, attempted to pass Doherty on the left, according to filings by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, which would later charge him with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
Voyles’ Ford pick-up struck Doherty, who “subsequently lost control of his bike and was slammed onto the side of the road,” according to a court filing from the DA. Doherty arrived at Enloe unresponsive, with multiple life-threatening injuries.
The next morning—July 29—the 75-year-old Doherty died. Chico had lost a well-known orthopedic surgeon and, as one of his three daughters described him, a “community treasure.”
Butte County has long been popular for road biking and draws several thousand cyclists for the annual spring Wildflower Century ride.
However, particularly for cyclists riding alone and in smaller groups, safety has always been a concern: This county ranked 15th for the highest rate in bike crashes among California’s 58 counties in 2022, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. Fifty-five people were killed or injured in bike crashes that year, and six of the 55 were under 15.
On the stretch of Cohasset Road outside city limits where Doherty was struck, there were at least five bike crashes between January 2015 and March 2025, according to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System. In addition to the crash that killed Doherty, the accidents injured three cyclists severely. These were only the crashes that had been reported to the California Highway Patrol.
Voyles was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and sentenced in December 2021 to a one-year conditional and revocable release to the community with a one-year driver’s license suspension, according to court documents.
Yet, this was the second time he had struck a bicyclist on the same road, according to court filings. Both Doherty and cyclist Michael Shepherd were struck by the side mirror of Voyles’ truck.
In a surprising twist to this story, Shepherd, a civil litigation attorney, became one of three attorneys representing the Doherty family in a civil lawsuit after Doherty was killed. Doherty’s family filed suit against Butte County and Voyles, and argued the county failed to “maintain and repair the deteriorated roadway,” which it said contributed to Doherty’s death.
Butte County settled the case in 2021, Shepherd said, but the amount of the settlement is confidential.
Doherty’s tragic death raised questions about the county’s responsibility to ensure the safety of cyclists on its 1,300 miles of roads.
Jennifer Whipple, Doherty’s oldest daughter, told ChicoSol that the county was “on notice that the road was in need of repair” in early spring that year, and “unfortunately, that [road fixing] did not happen soon enough to save my father’s life.”
Joshua Pack, the director of Butte County Public Works, declined to comment on the case that was resolved years ago. “All I can say is now we’re doing everything we can to hold that road in as good a shape as possible,” Pack said in a July phone interview.
But Pack admitted the road has been worsening since the 2024 Park Fire because of the debris hauling and removal.
“We’ve prioritized our repairs on that road as potholes, as the edges of roads are impacted by oversized trucks,” Pack said.
“Our crews are aware that Cohasset Road is a critical route, especially when you combine the traditional traffic, recreational traffic, residential traffic, with all of the disaster recovery activities,” Pack added.
Pack said the County recently received $1.4 million in earmarked funds from Congress to explore options to improve some sections of Cohasset Road. Public Works held a July 17 community meeting with about 30 Cohasset residents, discussing options to improve Cohasset Road with the new federal funding—and the narrow section, where Doherty was struck, was one area of discussion.
A “surrendered” driver’s license
Three years prior to Doherty’s death, his cycling friend Shepherd was enjoying a bike ride on Cohasset Road in May 2015. After passing the intersection of Keefer and Cohasset Road, he saw some rocks that had slid down from the hill on the right. To avoid them, he said he tried to move from the bike lane into the traffic lane.
Suddenly, he felt a blow of pain to his back. He had been struck by the side mirror of a truck that was attempting to pass him. Shepherd only suffered several bruises on his back. Voyles apologized and gave Shepherd a ride home.
Shepherd didn’t report the accident. When he learned that the driver who killed Doherty was the driver who hit him, he remembers his surprise.
“I thought the event itself was enough to get his attention,” Shepherd said of his own collision with Voyles. “He was shook up and showed remorse. I felt he had learned his lesson.”
Every now and then, Shepherd thinks of Doherty when he rides Cohasset Road. He said that Doherty was one of the most cautious cyclists and one of the smartest people he has known.
Shepherd and Doherty had known each other for more than 20 years. One fall many years ago, they participated in Cycle Oregon. Their tents were next to each other and they chatted at night by the campfire.
“That’s how I got to know him,” Shepherd said. “He was cranky on the outside, but very sweet inside.”
Doherty and his grandson Wylder Whipple. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Whipple.
Shepherd told ChicoSol that Voyles, then 87, surrendered his driver’s license after the second accident. (ChicoSol was unable to locate Voyles for comment, and his attorney, Kevin Sears, did not respond to several requests for an interview.)
ChicoSol obtained Voyles’ driving record as of May 2025 from CalMatters, which shows that his license expired on May 2, 2020—two years after the accident that killed Doherty—and prior to his 2021 conviction. It has never been renewed.
Voyles received a two-point penalty for the conviction, but no suspension connected to the fatal crash appears on his May 2025 driving record. However, the judge made the one-year license suspension a condition of probation based on a section of the law (California Vehicle Code 13361) that says the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) “may suspend” a license under certain conditions.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said judges have only “very limited jurisdiction” to order DMV to suspend licenses, and this case didn’t fall under the section of code that permits such an order.
“The defendant is responsible for obeying the terms of their probation, which in this case is they are not to drive a vehicle during the course of their probation,” Ramsey explained to ChicoSol.
He should never be allowed to continue to drive, Whipple said.
A damaged county road that cyclists use
The deterioration in the roadway became a key argument in the civil complaint against Butte County filed by Doherty’s family, and it was acknowledged as well by Voyles in the criminal case.
“As Mr. Voyles was looking for oncoming traffic while passing Mr. Doherty, Mr. Voyles stated Mr. Doherty swerved his bicycle to the left to avoid a part of the roadway that was damaged,” Sears said in requesting misdemeanor diversion for his client. “Mr. Voyles did not have enough time to react …”
During the investigation for the civil case, Shepherd discovered that three months before Doherty’s accident, former Butte County Supervisor Maureen Kirk and then Public Works Director Dennis Schmidt went to the damaged road where the crash would soon take place. The visit was prompted by an email from Cohasset resident Maggie Krehbiel to Kirk expressing concern about the condition of Cohasset Road.
But after going to the site, the county didn’t take action to fix the road, Shepherd said. The transcripts of Kirk’s and Schmidt’s depositions showed they were aware that the road was used by bicyclists.
But Schmidt, during his deposition, testified that when he visited the site, “The road was not degraded to this point … There was a slight raveling on the edge of the roadway.”
Defendant Butte County argued that Doherty was injured while engaged in a “sporting activity,” and the “degraded roadway edge was an inherent risk of road cycling …,” a court filing states.
Kirk, who stepped down from the board in 2019, told ChicoSol that she saw that the road was not perfect when she visited the site, but she no longer remembers more detail.
“Even though the road was compromised a little bit, this man (driver) was responsible for killing Dr. Doherty,” Kirk said. “There’s enough sightline that he could see that Dr. Doherty came out just a little bit. He still could see since it was a daytime accident.”
“There’s always something that could be fixed in the whole county,” Kirk added.
Kirk noted that Doherty was a well-known and loved doctor.
“I was just heartbroken,” Kirk said. “He was doing all kinds of exercise and all the good things you’re supposed to do to live long. It just wasn’t fair. It was really hard on his family, too.”
“Everything that he did, he did 150%” — Jennifer Whipple
Butte County Superior Court Judge Tamara Mosbarger, in opposing a motion by the County in the civil case, said the County “had knowledge of the ‘less than ideal’ road conditions prior to the incident” and has “a duty not to increase the risks inherent in the sporting activity of road cycling at the location of the incident.”
But Mosbarger didn’t rule on whether the County “breached its duty to avoid increasing the risk to road cyclists.”
Soon after, both sides moved to mediation and reached a settlement.
“The elderly gentleman who struck Dr. Doherty – his insurance company paid its policy limits. The County also made a payment (to the family of Doherty),” Shepherd said.
The damaged section of the road was finally repaired in the summer of 2019.
Shepherd and Doherty’s family believe the tragedy could have been prevented. Doherty was survived by his wife, Candice Doherty, as well as his daughters.
Seven years after the accident, safety on Cohasset Road remains an important issue. Pack said that Public Works has been fixing the road “almost in real time.” (See ChicoSol sidebar on how recreational cyclists would like to improve safety.)
He also pointed out that “as a rural county with limited resources,” widening and maintaining county roads can be difficult and arduous, and the emergency repairs, disaster recovery as well as maintenance efforts are usually prioritized over widening or straightening projects.
“We’re hoping once most of the repair and debris and hazard tree efforts are complete, we can begin exploring a considerable project to repair and restore Cohasset Road,” Pack said. “We’re not making any promises, but we’re excited about the potential option to partner with the (Cohasset) community to explore widening options.”
Doherty at 150%
In his daughter’s eyes, Doherty was a caring, loving and understanding father.
Whipple has many cherished memories with her dad, such as accompanying him on patient rounds when she was young, spending weekends at his office helping with whatever he needed, and riding bikes together.
Whipple recalls the day she received a B+ for a high school class, although she was always a straight A student, and her frustration.
Doherty didn’t look disappointed at all, and told Whipple, “You’ll learn more from that B+ than any of your As.” Then, he took Whipple out for ice cream to celebrate her B+—to celebrate the imperfection of life.
“That lesson he taught me has been so important in my life, because we all need to learn to love ourselves, even if we’re not perfect,” Whipple recalled.
She said Doherty was serving in three positions prior to his passing: At his private medical practice, working for the Veterans Administration, and conducting independent medical evaluations.
When she walked around town with her father, people approached him and thanked him for everything that he had done for them.
Her decision to become a lawyer to help children with special needs was inspired by her father, who always helped others, Whipple said.
“Everything that he did, he did 150%.”
When Whipple talked about her father seven years after his death, she was still overcome with grief and tears. A more careful driver, a road that had been repaired—those are her heartbreaking what-ifs.
Whipple lives in Los Gatos now and wasn’t able to see her father before his death.
Doherty owned a 10-acre almond orchard in Chico and loved his trees. Now, Whipple’s own home is also surrounded by a forest of trees.
Every time she looks at them and sees the branches swaying in the breeze, she feels her father’s presence. “I feel like that’s my dad. He is with me,” Whipple said.
This story was clarified on July 29 to show that the driver’s license suspension was a condition of probation for Jim Voyles, not an order by the court to DMV.
It follows two stories by partner CalMatters that were reprinted by ChicoSol on vehicular manslaughter convictions in California. Yucheng Tang is a California Local News Fellow reporting for ChicoSol.