DELAWARE, OHIO — A truck driver convicted of causing an April chain-reaction crash on Interstate 71 that killed a young family of three was sentenced Thursday, October 29, to a combined 22 and a half years in prison, after a Delaware County courtroom heard heartbreaking testimony from the victims’ relatives.
Modou Ngom was found guilty in September of three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and five counts of vehicular assault. The crash killed Luke Soposki, his wife Lynnea Soposki, and their 1-year-old son Logan, and injured five other people. Prosecutors said Ngom was driving recklessly and failed to slow down as he hit stopped traffic inside a construction zone.
The sentences on all eight counts are to be served consecutively. Ngom received a lifetime license suspension on the most serious counts and additional five-year suspensions on others. No fine was imposed because of an ongoing civil case and the length of the prison sentence. He will be eligible for parole in 2048. The public defender was appointed for his appeal.
“You Wiped Out an Entire Family”
The judge cited the severity of the crash, victim impact statements, Ngom’s apparent lack of remorse, and evidence that he obtained his CDL under an alternate identity. “You wiped out an entire family. The effects of that will be lifelong, life altering, life changing,” the judge said. Prosecutors accused Ngom of “making up lies” during his testimony.
Luke’s brother, Greg Soposki, told the court about the ongoing pain. “Luke wasn’t just my brother. He was someone I could always count on. Someone who made me laugh. Someone I expected to grow old with. Lynnea was a loving wife and devoted mother whose kindness and love touched everyone around her. Logan was the innocent little boy whose life had just begun. He should have had the chance to grow up.” He described sleeplessness and how every family event is now marked by absence and grief.
The victims’ grandparents recalled the night two New York State troopers came to their home to tell them their son, his wife, and their 13-month-old grandson were dead. They urged the court to impose the maximum sentence without a chance of early release.
Another relative, Jason, described anxiety and depression and losing his job after the crash. A survivor wrote that “what began as a normal day became a traumatic, life changing experience.”
Ngom told the court the crash was never his intention and said he is the sole provider for his family in Senegal. “I am the driver who was operating that. May God heal your pain.” He denied using a device while driving and said he thinks about the victims daily.
A History of Fraud and Violations
Investigators determined Ngom fraudulently obtained his driver’s license in 2003 and his CDL in 2007 under a different identity. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in the mid-2010s using that same identity, and he reportedly changed his name back to Modou Ngom in 2015.
Federal investigators also said he was cited in Kansas for a brake violation, a malfunctioning ABS warning light, three weeks before the crash. He had also been convicted of driving an unsafe vehicle in an earlier crash involving a drive shaft malfunction. That conviction was reported to state agencies but was not included in federal records.
Interviews courtesy of local media.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
