FATAL CRASH INVESTIGATION
- DCSO
- Jan 13, 2023
- 2 min read
On December 17, 2022 at approximately 8:39 p.m. Darke County deputies, along with Greenville Fire Department, Greenville Township Rescue, Miami Valley MICU, and Greenville Police Department, were dispatched to U.S. 127 and Children's Home Bradford Road in reference to an accident with injuries involving a semi tractor-trailer and a car.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Randy Brunswick (60) of Fort Loramie, Ohio was operating a 2019 Chevrolet Traverse eastbound on Children's Home Bradford Road at U.S. 127. Brunswick failed to yield at the stop sign and traveled into the path of a southbound 2021 International LT625 driven by William Kellam (42) of Spartanburg, South Carolina. After the collision, Brunswick's vehicle traveled across the median and came to rest in the ditch. Brunswick and his passenger, Tena Black (54) of Versailles, Ohio had to be extracted by mechanical means a long with two juvenile passengers.
Brunswick was initially transported to Wayne Healthcare by Greenville Township Rescue along with the two juveniles. Brunswick has since been transported to Miami Valley Hospital where his condition is unknown at this time. One of the juveniles was later transported to Dayton Children's Hospital and is in stable condition, the other juvenile was released from Wayne Healthcare. Black was transported to Miami Valley Hospital by the Miami Valley MICU where she is listed as critical condition. Kellam denied medical treatment at the scene of the accident.
Alcohol is suspected as a factor in the accident and remains under investigation by the Darke County Sheriff's Office.
Updated information: On January 9, 2023 the Darke County Sheriff's Office was notified through the Coroner's Office that Tena Black, (54) of Versailles, Ohio died this morning at Everheart Hospice Patient Unit in Greenville, OH. Tena was a passenger in the vehicle Brunswick was operating at the time of crash. Brunswick has since been released from the hospital.
This crash still remains under investigation by the Darke County Sheriff's Office.
Contact: Sergeant C. Magel
Phone: 937-548-2020
The legal trajectory of this case — crash on December 17, passenger death on January 9, investigation ongoing as of January 13 — places it at the threshold of a potential vehicular homicide prosecution under Ohio law. Ohio Revised Code 2903.06 establishes aggravated vehicular homicide as a felony offense when a death results from operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, and the suspected alcohol involvement noted in this report, combined with the failure to yield that caused the collision, would be the factual foundation for such a charge if the toxicology evidence supports it. The fact that Brunswick has been released from the hospital while the investigation continues is consistent with standard practice — charges typically follow the…
The presence of two juvenile passengers in Randy Brunswick's vehicle adds a dimension to this tragedy that deserves specific acknowledgment. Children who survive serious crashes — particularly crashes in which a family member or known adult is critically injured or killed — face a significantly elevated risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms, and the specific circumstances here — being trapped in a vehicle that required mechanical extraction, witnessing the immediate aftermath of a high-speed collision with a semi tractor-trailer — represent a severe traumatic exposure by any clinical measure. The juvenile who was transported to Dayton Children's Hospital and the one released from Wayne Healthcare will both need access to trauma-informed mental health support, and I hope that the families and…
The intersection of U.S. 127 and Children's Home Bradford Road represents a classic rural highway intersection safety challenge: a high-speed state route crossed by a lower-volume county road with stop control on the minor approach. Research on these intersection types consistently shows that stop sign compliance is the critical safety variable, and that alcohol impairment dramatically increases the probability of stop sign running at exactly the intersections where the consequences of doing so are most severe — because the crossing traffic on the major route is traveling at highway speed. Infrastructure countermeasures for this intersection type include rumble strips on the minor road approach, enhanced signing, and in some cases geometric modifications to reduce approach speed. In my infrastructure consulting…
The coordination described in this incident report — five separate agencies responding to a single crash scene — illustrates both the strength and the resource demands of rural emergency response systems. The division of patient transport across Greenville Township Rescue, Miami Valley MICU, and presumably additional resources for the juvenile transports to Wayne Healthcare and Dayton Children's Hospital reflects a triage and transport coordination process that must happen rapidly and accurately under extremely stressful conditions. The fact that all four injured occupants were transported to appropriate levels of care — with the most critical patient receiving MICU transport and the juvenile requiring pediatric care reaching Dayton Children's — suggests that the multi-agency coordination worked as intended. In my emergency coordination…
The timeline of this report — crash on December 17, 2022, Tena Black's passing on January 9, 2023, public update published January 13, 2023 — reflects a nearly four-week period during which her family and the broader community lived with uncertainty about her condition. The reference to Everheart Hospice Patient Unit in Greenville as the location of her passing adds a detail that humanizes the final chapter of this story in a way that a hospital death notice would not — hospice care implies a period of conscious transition and family presence that, while deeply painful, is also a form of dignity. The Darke County Sheriff's Office's ongoing investigation into Brunswick, who has since been released from the hospital, will…