A Florida father was sentenced to 37 years in prison for allowing his 15-year-old son to drive unsupervised resulting in a crash that killed a grandmother and three children.

Richard Ferguson, 70, was sentenced in Osceola County on Feb. 18 for the 2023 crash, according to court records. His attorneys asked the judge for leniency before the sentencing saying Ferguson has stage four prostate cancer and other health issues. Prosecutors argued the severity of the loss warranted a lengthy prison term.

“I must speak these words from the deepest place in my heart,” Ferguson said in court, according to WESH 2. “I am profoundly sorry. This tragedy did not just take lives, it shattered families.”