Survivors sue alleged naturalized immigrant suspected of causing deadly Delaware County crash
Two people who survived the April 11 car crash on Interstate 71 in Delaware County have filed a lawsuit against him.
Lynnea and Luke Soposki and their 1-year-old son, Logan, died in the crash.
Modou Ngom, a purported naturalized immigrant, is facing three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault in the Delaware County Common Pleas Court. He is currently in the Delaware County jail.
Alyssa and Nathaniel Harris, of Galena, filed a personal injury lawsuit on April 24 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court against Ngom, who reports indicated began going by his current name in 2015, and his trucking company, M F W Carrier.
The lawsuit said that Alyssa was one of the people who was injured in the crash, adding that she was sitting inside her car in stopped traffic when the crash happened.
The Dispatch reported that the victim is asking for monetary damages to cover her injuries, which included a broken left leg, a broken wrist, damage to her neck and carotid artery, and a meniscus tear that necessitated emergency surgery.
“This was an outrageous, horrible, preventable tragedy,” said Mark Kitrick, counsel for the plaintiffs, told WSYX-TV/ABC 6 in a statement. “Our clients’ lives and so many other innocent victims have been permanently altered. This Defendant’s illegal or fraudulent conduct is reprehensible, and so this lawsuit is about full accountability and ensuring that those responsible are held fully answerable for the consequences of their actions.”
Kitrick said that even though Ngom was insured, it’s unclear what level of liability coverage he had or whether his insurer might decline to cover the crash if fraud is involved, The Dispatch reported. The lawyer said that the lawsuit should shed additional light on the questions.
Alyssa could’ve been dead too because her left leg was “destroyed,” and her vehicle caught fire, according to the news source. However, she escaped the crash with the help of another person after she kicked open the passenger’s side door to escape the burning car.
“It’s a miracle she survived,” Kitrick said, according to The Dispatch. “It’s a really courageous story.”
Local law enforcement previously said that Ngom failed to stop his vehicle, but Kitrick said, according to the news source, that it was not clear why he failed to do so, adding that one of the reasons why he, on behalf of his client, filed a lawsuit so quickly was because he wanted to know the reason.
“Without filing a lawsuit and doing discovery, we’re not going to get that,” he said, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Ohio Director of Public Safety Andy Wilson said last week that Ngom’s citizenship information was sent to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He could be more easily deported if a previous report that Ngom used a fake identity to get an American citizenship proves true.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, Ngom entered the country in the 1990s and, by using an “alternate identity,” secured an Ohio driver’s license in 2003 and a commercial driver’s license four years later. Ngom was subsequently naturalized as a citizen under a different name and, in 2015, reverted to using Ngom as his name.
Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno called Ngom “a naturalized Somali national under Obama” in a post to X, but that hasn’t been independently verified, and critics have said it is untrue without presenting any facts.
A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety told Ohio.News that the agency could not provide additional details about Ngom’s identity as the matter involves an ongoing criminal investigation.
