Truck driver charged in crash that killed Fairborn man, 2 daughters

Nathan Johnson, 45, of Fairborn, left, and his two eldest daughters Savannah, 15, center, and Karaline, 13, were tragically killed June 29, 2023, in a crash on Interstate 70 in Guernsey County on the way to a national dance championship in Ocean City, Maryland.

Nathan Johnson, 45, of Fairborn, left, and his two eldest daughters Savannah, 15, center, and Karaline, 13, were tragically killed June 29, 2023, in a crash on Interstate 70 in Guernsey County on the way to a national dance championship in Ocean City, Maryland.

A Florida man is facing charges following a wrong-way crash in June involving a semi that killed three members of a Fairborn family on Interstate 70 in Guernsey County.

Raymond D. Clifford, 48, of Orange City, Florida, was charged last week in Cambridge Municipal Court with three counts of vehicular homicide, a misdemeanor. A warrant for his arrest was issued, records show.

Nathan Johnson, 45, was driving his daughters Savannah, 15, and Karaline, 13, in the family’s 2015 Nissan Versa to Ocean City, Maryland, for a national dance competition.

Clifford was headed west in a 2018 Freightliner just before 6 a.m. June 29 on I-70 in Cambridge Twp. when the truck went off the left side of the highway, crossed the median and then struck a guardrail and the Johnsons’ car. Clifford was treated and released from an area hospital.

Nathan Johnson was taken to Ohio Health Hospital of Cambridge, where he was pronounced dead. His daughters were pronounced dead at the scene, according to a crash report filed by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Neither driver tested positive for drugs or alcohol, the report states.

Johnson worked as an intelligence analyst contractor at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and was serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He previously served on active duty in the U.S. Navy, according to the obituary for the family members.

Savannah and Karaline were members of the Miami Valley Dance Center’s Dance Force team.

The Johnsons are survived by their wife/mother, Jamie Johnson, and the family’s four younger children: Natalie, Jude, Abigail and Esther, according to their obituary.

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