WAILUKU - For driving while intoxicated and causing a five-vehicle collision on Honoapiilani Highway that injured five others, a Kahului man was taken into custody Wednesday to serve a one-year jail term.

"The innocent people who were occupying the vehicles that were involved were severely injured," 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August said as he imposed the sentence on Lee K. Nakashima. "It appears, in many cases, their lives have been changed, in many cases permanently."

Noting that Nakashima, 35, has no prior criminal record, August also placed the defendant on five years' probation instead of ordering the five-year prison term sought by the prosecution.

Nakashima was ordered to enter and complete a residential substance abuse treatment program after he serves the jail term and to perform 250 hours of community service.

The collision was reported at 4:18 p.m. May 20, 2008, as Nakashima was driving a 1989 Peterbilt dump truck toward Maalaea on the highway near Olowalu. A Toyota pickup truck was stopped in traffic when it was hit by the dump truck, which was speeding in the 45-mph zone, police reported. That started a chain reaction, with the pickup rear-ending a Honda sedan, which was thrown into a Dodge pickup truck that rear-ended a GMC multipurpose vehicle, according to police. All of the vehicles were heading in the Maalaea direction on the highway and had been stopped in traffic.

Before the crash, several witnesses reported that the dump truck was "driving left of center in Lahaina, going into the oncoming lane of traffic, swerving off the road, passing cars, swerving back into the lane of travel," said Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani.

"I don't think it's appropriate to call this an accident," Tani said. "It's a foregone conclusion, based on his driving pattern, that somebody's going to be injured or somebody's going to die. It's just a matter of who's going to be unlucky enough to be injured. The only positive is nobody died."

Six people, including Nakashima, were transported by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center after the crash.

A blood sample drawn from Nakashima at the hospital indicated the use of marijuana and two types of pain medication, August said.

Deputy Public Defender William "Pili" McGrath said Nakashima entered no-contest pleas to all 10 charges he faced because he didn't want the victims to suffer further.

Nakashima had pleaded no contest to three counts each of first-degree negligent injury and inattention to driving, two counts of second-degree negligent injury, reckless driving and driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

"I know Lee's main regret is that anyone got hurt," McGrath said. "It's painful to think about how some of these people are going to suffer for the rest of their lives. The statements are tragic.

"If sending Lee Nakashima to prison for five years would repair even one of these people, he'd volunteer."

But McGrath argued that jail as part of probation was an appropriate sentence for Nakashima, who no longer drives a truck for a living and resides with his mother and girlfriend.

In court Wednesday, the mother of 23-year-old Kihei resident James Stevens, who suffered a broken back, broken ribs, collapsed lung, and facial and skull fractures in the crash, read a letter from her husband asking that the maximum sentence be ordered for Nakashima.

Stevens was on his way home from work as a construction foreman, asleep in the right rear seat of a Honda Accord, which the dump truck ended up on top of, Deborah Stevens said. After undergoing surgeries, she said, her son continues to suffer from chronic back pain and headaches, as well as psychological problems.

Both Stevens and Victor Valdez, a 23-year-old Kihei resident who was also a passenger in the Honda, have been told by doctors that they can't go back to their construction jobs because of their injuries. The judge noted that Valdez's wife, Sara, works two jobs to help support the family that includes two children, ages 6 and 4.

"I don't know any of the people that were involved," Nakashima said in court. "But if they knew me outside of what happened, they would know I'm just an ordinary working guy, good guy, don't bother anybody.

"I'm very sorry that it happened."

Nakashima was ordered to pay $7,821 in restitution to Valdez, as well as $735 in court fees.

Some of those injured have filed a pending civil suit against Nakashima and S Funes Equipment Inc., the company he was working for at the time.

While he didn't know Nakashima, Valdez said that he and three co-workers in his car had seen the dump truck leaving their worksite in Kapalua the day of the crash. Raymond "Kaleo" Jackson was driving the Honda owned by Valdez, who had bought the car about two months earlier.

Valdez and Joseph Wade, another passenger, spent 45 minutes getting Stevens out of the car. "It was a pretty intense situation," Valdez said.

Although he recently started work in a new job, Valdez said he is still trying to find a new vocation.

"We have been struggling," he said after the court hearing. "He has to live with the guilt, but he ruined people's lives for the rest of their lives."

Valdez said he didn't have strong feelings about what sentence Nakamura should have received.

But both he and his wife wanted to be present for the sentencing.

"The main thing I wanted was to know he was remorseful," Sara Valdez said. "He was remorseful."

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.