A former Sacred Heart University student has been sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison after taking a plea deal involving OUI and assault charges tied to a head-on crash near the university in September 2023 that seriously injured himself, an Uber driver and four other students.
Tyler Delk, 21, of South Orange, New Jersey faced sentencing last Friday in Bridgeport Superior Court where a judge ordered that his prison term will be followed by five years of probation, according to Judicial Branch records.
The sentencing came after Delk pleaded no contest to four counts of second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, court records show. He also pleaded guilty to one count of operating under the influence with an elevated blood alcohol content, according to court records.
Delk was 19 years old and a student at Sacred Heart when he was involved in a crash on Sept. 29, 2023, according to the Fairfield Police Department. Officers responded to reports of the crash shortly after midnight when they received multiple 911 calls about a collision on Jefferson Street near the university’s Martire building, police said.
Following an investigation, police said they found that Delk was going more than 85 mph in a 2018 Audi S5 as he was headed west on Jefferson Street and lost control of the vehicle, crashing into a 2021 Toyota Corolla being driven by an Uber driver carrying four female Sacred Heart students. The Audi ended up on its roof following the collision, according to police.
Police said all six people involved in the crash were seriously injured and were hospitalized. The Uber driver and one of his passengers were initially listed in critical condition, according to police.
The investigation into the collision revealed that Delk’s blood alcohol level was 10 times the legal limit in Connecticut, which is 0.02 for a person under 21.
Delk’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.