Criminal charges filed against driver of the truck that crashed into Trooper Nicholas Cayton’s OSP Cruiser

BetrasKopp is honored and privileged to represent the family of Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas Cayton who was killed in the line of duty on October 16, 2025, when a truck driven by Ryan Rach rammed into the back of Trooper Cayton’s cruiser. Trooper Cayton was assisting the driver of a disabled truck that had come to a stop in the right-hand lane of State Route 11 North when the crash occurred.

The Vindicator reported on Friday that Rach on a number of felony charges. Here is the story:

On Friday, July Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson held a press conference at the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post to announce that Ryan Rach, 36, of Canfield, has been indicted on a charge of third-degree felony aggravated vehicular homicide with a specification of a peace officer victim in the Oct. 16 crash on state Route 11 that killed trooper Nicholas Cayton.

Rach could get several years in prison if convicted, and the specification would add five years to Rach’s sentence if he is convicted.

Rach was arrested at his home Friday morning and is now in the Mahoning County jail. It is not known when he will make his first appearance in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Cayton, 40, of the Canfield Post, was assisting truck driver Nelson De Jesus Herrera Vasquez, 65, of Florida, on state Route 11 northbound near Leffingwell Road before the crash. After making contact with Vasquez, Cayton was sitting in his cruiser with the emergency overhead lights activated when a 2007 Mack Granite, driven by Rach, traveling northbound, crashed into the back of Cayton’s cruiser. Cayton was killed at the scene.

A crash report indicated Rach was not intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, but was “distracted.” The section of the report involving distraction does not specify some of the common types of distraction, such as texting or talking on a cellphone.

It does not specify whether the distraction came from inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle. It indicates that the distraction was “unknown” or “other.”

The report states that Rach was driving a flatbed truck owned by Quaker City Concrete Products of Leetonia. The report indicated that Rach and the vehicle he was driving as being the “unit in error” in the crash.

Wilson also announced that Rach faces a charge of aggravated vehicular assault as a result of the injuries to Vasquez, who was also struck and badly injured in the crash. That charge is a fourth-degree felony, punishable by about 18 months in prison if convicted.

After Wilson announced the basics of the charges in Rach’s indictment, which was issued Friday under the name John Doe, he quickly focused on Cayton’s wife and children and Cayton’s “trooper family and the family of his broader community.”

Wilson said, “Life goes on for … those of you out there who were not directly impacted by this crash, by this death.

“But for Trooper Cayton’s family … there will forever be loss that they feel as a result of this defendant’s actions.” He mentioned the troopers around the perimeter of the news conference outside of the patrol post, saying “This post will never be the same. He was a beloved member of this post.”

Wilson said the Ohio Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division will handle prosecution of the criminal charges against Rach.

“I am comfortable with this case. I am comfortable with the evidence we have that will play out in court. And I am confident in the abilities of the prosecutors we have working with the investigators who worked on this case to take this case into court and to provide some measure of justice,” he said.

Wilson explained the charges Rach faces regarding both victims allege that Rach “operated the motor vehicle recklessly” and caused Cayton’s death.

He said recklessly is a legal standard that is higher than negligent. “And as a result of operating a motor vehicle recklessly, he caused the death of trooper Cayton.”

The charge involving Vasquez also alleges Rach operated a vehicle recklessly.

An Ohio attorney general news release later Friday stated an Ohio State Highway Patrol investigation determined that Rach was allegedly distracted and using his cellphone before the crash.”

CRASH REPORT

In the crash report for the accident, none of the other drivers or their vehicles were listed as having any “contributing circumstance” in the crash. Trooper Steven Tucci, an accident reconstructionist, is listed as the officer responsible for the report.

It stated after the cruiser was struck, it traveled forward into the back of Vasquez’s disabled tractor-trailer, also striking Vasquez, who was standing outside the vehicle. Vasquez was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

The diagram showing the location of the vehicles involved in the crash shows Vasquez next to his truck at the time of the crash. It shows all of the vehicles in the right lane of the two northbound lanes.

At Cayton’s funeral at Beeghly Center at Youngstown State University, the trooper was honored by Gov. Mike DeWine and other state officials, as well as people who knew him on a more personal level, for his love of his family and for his service — as a state trooper and as an Ohio National Guardman deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. About 1,000 people attended his service, many of them fellow police officers.

LAWSUITS

Cayton’s estate and Vazquez have filed lawsuits in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the crash.

Cayton’s estate named as defendants TRDB Investments LLC, doing business as Quaker City Concrete Products of New Waterford; Rach, Vazquez; and John and Jane Does.

The suit alleges that “as a direct and proximate result of defendants’ negligent conduct, (Cayton) suffered wrongful death and the next of kin, including but not limited to his wife, two children and his parents.”

The suit states that Rach was working in the scope of his job with Quaker City at the time of the crash and that he “owed a duty to operate the Mack truck in a safe and reasonable manner and breached that duty by negligently operating the Mack truck.” The suit alleges that Quaker City is “vicariously liable” for Cayton’s “wrongful death.”

The suit alleges negligent hiring of Rach by Quaker City, alleging that the company “knew or should have known that Rach was unfit, incompetent, inexperienced, unsafe or otherwise unable to safely operate the Mack truck under the circumstances then existing.”

The suit also alleges negligence by Rach, stating that he “had a duty to operate his Mack truck in a safe and reasonable manner,” that he “breached that duty” and his “actions were a direct and proximate cause of the crash.”

The suit, filed by attorney Brian Kopp of BetrasKopp LLC, alleges that Vasquez also was negligent, alleging that he “had a duty to maintain and operate his tractor-trailer in a safe and reasonable manner and his actions “were a direct and proximate cause of the crash.”