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Last updated on Friday, March 9, 2018
(JEFFERSONVILLE) - A Henryville mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges stating that she was high on drugs when her SUV collided with a freight train, killing her two young children.
29-year-old Ericka Fouch of Henryville pleaded guilty last month in a negotiated plea deal to two counts of causing death while operating a motor vehicle while driving under influence of a controlled substance and one count of driving without a license during a hearing in Clark Circuit Court in Jeffersonville.
The judge sentenced her Thursday to nine years on each count, but suspended three years on the second count.
Fouch has admitted to being under the influence of marijuana and methamphetamine when she tried to beat the train last June in Henryville, about 20 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. The collision killed 5-year-old Adalyn Fouch and 4-year-old Wyatt Fouch.
Fouch expressed "extreme" regret and remorse over the accident.
Fouch was arrested in September after toxicology results showed she was had nordiazepam, amphetamines, meth and THC or marijuana in her system.
Fouch told police she had used drugs about an hour before the accident happened.
Emergency personnel found the two children trapped in the backseat of Fouch's 2005 Mitsubishi SUV with weak pulses. The children were later pronounced dead before they were able to be removed from the SUV.
Autopsies of the children listed the causes of death as multiple blunt force trauma injuries. Adalynn also sustained a skull fracture and Wyatt a broken neck.
Ericka Fouch was also injured and taken to University Hospital and underwent surgery.
Police say video from the CSX train showed that Fouch did not stop before the SUV collided with the train. The video and audio showed the train was blowing its horn, as it approached the flashing railroad intersection, court records said.
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