Ohio Firefighter Sentenced to 9 Months Over Response Accident
A volunteer firefighter from Portage, Ohio has been sentenced to 9 months in prison for causing an accident in 2010 that killed a 24 year old man and seriously injured his girlfriend.
Firefighter Timothy Johnson, now 43, of the Portage Fire District, was responding to a mutual aid structure fire on July 16, 2010 when his personally owned vehicle collided with a car driven by Olivia Duty. Duty’s boyfriend, Ian Huffman, 24, was killed in the crash. Police estimated Johnson’s speed at between 96-98 miles per hour just before the collision. Here is our previous coverage of the accident.
Johnson was originally charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault. Following a mistrial where a prosecutor committed misconduct by failing to disclose evidence to the defense, Johnson pled guilty to one count negligent vehicular homicide and attempted negligent homicide, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Besides the 9 months in prison, Johnson will lose his driver’s license for 3 years.
I think the telling point in the sentencing is the fact (noted in this article in the Toledo “Blade:” http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2012/09/25/Man-handed-9-months-in-jail-for-fatal-car-crash.html) that although Johnson entered a guilty plea, he did not express any remorse for his actions, accept responsibility, or apologize to the families of the victims.
Additionally, the Blade article points out the interesection was a known problem: “Ninety-eight mph going through the most dangerous intersection in Ottawa County,” Mr. Huffman said. “There was a firefighter who testified that he wouldn’t do 30 mph through that intersection. This guy wasn’t even wearing a seatbelt.” Furthermore, tha article gives Johnson’s age as 43, so at the time of the accident two years ago, he would have been 40-42, depending on his birthday; he wasn’t some green teenage rookie. As a grown adult, he knew or should have known that those speeds were totally unacceptable. Much as I hate to criticize a fellow volunteer, especially an older one, he really should have known better, and his refusals to apologize or accept responsibility warrant the severe sanctions.