Columbus, Ohio Trucker Sentenced to 22 and a Half Years for I-71 Crash That Killed a Family of Three

A Columbus area trucker who drove his tractor trailer into stopped traffic in an Interstate 71 construction zone in April, killing a Delaware County couple and their baby son, was sentenced on Thursday to 22 and a half years in prison, the maximum sentence the law allowed.

Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Marianne T. Hemmeter imposed the sentence on Modou F. Ngom, 51, according to the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office. A county jury convicted Ngom on September 25 of three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and five counts of vehicular assault. The judge ordered the terms on all eight counts to run one after another, and she suspended his driver's license for life on the most serious counts, with added five year suspensions on the others.

The April crash on I-71

On April 11, Ngom was driving a tractor trailer north on I-71 in a construction zone near the U.S. 36 and State Route 37 interchange when he failed to stop for a traffic backup, prosecutors said. His truck set off a chain reaction crash involving nine vehicles. Federal investigators said the truck slammed into the stopped traffic without braking, and a part of its air brake system had come loose.

Dr. Lynnea Soposki, 36, her husband, Luke Soposki, 37, and their one year old son, Logan, were killed. Five other people were injured. Lynnea Soposki worked as a veterinarian at the Muirfield Animal Hospital in Dublin, and the family lived in Ashley in Delaware County.

What the court heard

Relatives of the Soposkis addressed the court before the sentence was imposed. In setting the maximum term, the judge cited the severity of the crash, the family's statements, Ngom's apparent lack of remorse, and evidence about how he obtained his licenses.

Investigators determined that Ngom had obtained a driver's license in 2003 and a commercial driver's license in 2007 under a different identity. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in the mid 2010s under that same identity and changed his name back to Modou Ngom in 2015. Three weeks before the April crash, he had been cited in Kansas for a brake violation and a malfunctioning ABS warning light, and he had an earlier conviction for driving an unsafe vehicle in a crash involving a drive shaft malfunction.

What happens next

The court imposed no fine, pointing to the length of the prison term and a pending civil case. Relatives of the Soposkis and another woman injured in the crash have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ngom, who owned the trucking company he drove for. Ngom will be eligible for parole in 2048, and a public defender was appointed to handle his appeal.

The case also drew political attention in Ohio. The Columbus Dispatch reported controversy after the crash when U.S. Sen. Jon Husted aired a campaign ad about it, and state officials said Ohio shared information with federal immigration investigators.