Old Bridge Man Sentenced In DUI Crash That Killed MIT Student

OLD BRIDGE, NJ — An Old Bridge man was sentenced this week for killing a woman, Aliza Akhtar, 19, and for injuring her passenger. Akhtar, who is from Old Bridge and was a student at MIT at the time of her death.

On Wednesday, Aliaksandr Tsytsenia, now 30, of Old Bridge, was sentenced to an aggregate fifteen years in prison on one count of second-degree vehicular homicide and one count of third-degree aggravated assault. The judge also ordered his license be revoked for a period of thirty years.

Tsytsenia previously pleaded guilty in the crash, and admitted he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the fatal crash.

Police say that on May 25, 2019, Tsytsenia, then 28, was driving his Mercedes S550 on Texas Road when he crossed over the double yellow lines and crashed head on into Akhtar’s car, a Toyota Corolla.

Akhtar was 19 when she was killed.

Both Akhtar and her passenger, a 15-year-old girl, were extricated from their car and transported to a Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center where Akhtar was pronounced dead. Her passenger was treated for significant bodily injuries.

Tsytsenia attempted to walk away after the crash, Old Bridge police said, when Patch first reported about the fatal crash.

The Mercedes he was driving caught fire and Old Bridge police said they found him about 80 yards down Texas Road, reported NJ.com. The Old Bridge police officer who arrested him said he smelled alcohol on his breath, and Tsytsenia admitted he had "two drinks," according to the report.

He was initially charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident in the second degree, assault by auto in the fourth degree and driving while intoxicated. On Monday, June 10, he was hit with the following additional charges: One count of aggravated manslaughter in the first degree, and one count of assault by auto in the third degree. The assault by auto charge was brought after it was determined that the 15-year-old passenger suffered a serious bodily injury.

"Akhtar ’22, held many dreams of making the world a better place," read this tribute to her on the MIT college website. "Aliza was majoring in Computer Science and she believed strongly in closing the gender gap in the Computer Science field. Those who knew Aliza knew her as a ray of sunshine who lit up every room she was in. Her kindness, her love, and her passion were apparent in every conversation you had with her. She was beautiful, strong, and genuinely a wonderful person. If anyone was going to change the world, it was her."

Akhtar has just wrapped up her freshman year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was studying on a full scholarship, the Tribune reported. She was an active member of MIT's Muslim-Pakistani community.