Truck driver gets 180 days in jail for crash that killed Fairborn man, 2 daughters

A Florida man is serving a jail sentence following his conviction this week in a June crash 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 found guilty Tuesday in Cambridge Municipal Court of three counts of vehicular homicide, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 180 days in the Guernsey County Jail with credit for 23 days served. He is expected to be released March 7, according to records.

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.