Note: This story has been updated to include additional information.
The driver of a tractor-tractor who caused a triple-fatal crash on Interstate 71 in Delaware County earlier this month used an alternate identity to fraudulently obtain his U.S. citizenship and Ohio driver’s licenses, state investigators say.
Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said in a prepared statement released April 23 that the state is turning over information the state uncovered about semi driver Modou Ngom to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for further investigation. Federal and local prosecutors also have been notified.
ICE “is the proper law enforcement agency to further investigate these allegations,” Wilson said.
Ngom, 50, has been in custody since he crashed into a line of stopped traffic on northbound I-71 traffic near the U.S. 36/Route 37 interchange, killing a family of three and injuring several others. He pleaded not guilty April 21 to three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and four charges of vehicular assault. He was being held in the Delaware County Jail as of 11 a.m. April 23.
He is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but Wilson said he obtained that status under an alternate identity.
Ngom allegedly entered the U.S. sometime in the 1990s and used multiple names to get state and federal identification, including an Ohio driver’s license in 2003 and a commercial driver’s license in 2007. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen under an alternate identity, then in 2015 he changed his name back to Modou Ngom, according to Wilson’s statement.
The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Ohio State Highway Patrol uncovered what it described as “conflicting information related to his identity in state and federal records” in an investigation of Ngom’s background.
Ngom told an officer who responded to the scene of the crash that he has a wife in Senegal and that he has no relatives in the United States. Wilson did not mention where Ngom is originally from and a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Public Safety did not immediately return a request for comment.
Ngom’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The crash killed a family of three living in Ashley, Delaware County: Lynnea and Luke Soposki and their 1-year-old son, Logan.
Ngom failed to leave adequate space during a traffic slowdown in a work zone and rear-ended the Soposki family’s Silverado going 25 miles per hour, according to a crash report. That initial collision caused multiple crashes. Ngom’s tractor-trailer and the Silverado ran off the road, struck the cable median barrier and caught on fire.
The report did not include additional details about how Ngom caused the crash besides following too closely. The category for Ngom’s distraction is labeled as other/unknown. A responding officer did not see any signs of heavy braking or skid marks on the road, according to records shared with The Dispatch.
It is also unclear if Ngom’s airbags deployed. The report says Ngom tested negative for any alcohol or drugs. In his statement, Ngom said that he did “everything possible to prevent the crash” and blamed the Soposki’s car for causing the crash.
Several witnesses and drivers of other involved cars told investigators that they saw Ngom’s tractor-trailer swerving and driving erratically prior to the collision.
Who is Modou Ngom?
Ngom owned and operated his own trucking company, according to public records, for which he was the only driver. He has no significant criminal record.
Ngom was involved in two prior incidents driving the same Freightliner tractor-trailer in 2024 and 2025. An insurance policy was listed in the crash report from an April 2025 incident when high winds caused the tractor-trailer to roll onto its side.
Of the 10 vehicles involved in the triple-fatal crash, half of them were destroyed by fire, according to records about the crash from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Seven experienced “disabling damage,” which is the most severe category possible in the report. One vehicle had functional damage, and two had minor damage.
The crash shut down traffic on I-71 for seven hours, according to the report. Emergency responders arrived at the scene eight minutes after the crash was first reported.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers the northwestern suburbs for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: ICE to investigate driver in I‑71 crash as state finds evidence of fraud
Reporting by Anna Lynn Winfrey, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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