The driver convicted of causing a 2006 accident in Kunia that killed four farm workers and injured eight others will be in prison until at least August.

The Hawaii Paroling Authority has notified John Szemkow that his parole request has been denied for now, Szemkow's lawyer, John Schum, said yesterday.

The parole board said it will reconsider Szemkow's bid for parole when he has completed a related sentence, Schum said.

Szemkow, 48, is serving a 10-year sentence for leaving the scene of an accident on Kunia Road on April 6, 2006.

Killed were Aquilina Polendey, 57, and Ana Sacalamitao, 46, of Waipahu, and Lorna Laroco, 53, and Gertrudis Montano, 59, of 'Ewa Beach.

The women were among a dozen farm workers riding in the bed of a red pickup truck that swerved to avoid Szemkow's oncoming sedan. The pickup veered into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a cement truck, killing the four and injuring eight others.

Szemkow was sentenced to the 10-year term on Aug. 6, 2008. On Jan. 9 the parole board ruled that he was eligible for parole after having served five months.

However, Szemkow first has to complete a one-year sentence for four counts of third-degree negligent homicide stemming from the Kunia incident. That sentence ends in August.

Schum said Szemkow received the board's decision to deny parole Friday evening.

Schum said the board has no jurisdiction over misdemeanor convictions.

"We understand and appreciate that the Paroling Authority's decision to deny Mr. Szemkow's request for parole at this time is complicated by the misdemeanor jail sentence," Schum said. "Based on the Paroling Authority's only stated reason for denying his request — the one-year misdemeanor sentence — we are confident that Mr. Szemkow's request for parole will be favorably acted upon following the August 2009 hearing."

Paroling Authority administrator Max Otani said the board also had to consider the fact that Halawa Correctional Facility is best equipped to deal with Szemkow's numerous and severe medical ailments, which have confined him to a wheelchair. Szemkow has been held in the Halawa infirmary since his conviction.

If parole had been granted on the felony offense, the state would have to transfer Szemkow to O'ahu Community Correctional Center, where people with misdemeanor offenses are held, Otani said.

Halawa prison doctor Steven DeWitt told the board at a Feb. 10 parole hearing that there is virtually no possibility that Szemkow, who requires a regimen of medications including a morphine pump, could be assigned to the general prison population.

Szemkow in April 2008 pleaded no contest to the charges of leaving the scene of an accident and negligent homicide. However, Schum has said in parole hearings that based on police reports and a closer examination of eyewitness accounts of what happened, Szemkow could not have caused the accident and that he was so far in front of the crash when it happened that he would not have known it had occurred.

However, city prosecutor Peter Carlisle yesterday said the facts speak for themselves.

"When they have their parole hearing, we will reiterate what we've said before — that he should be spending 10 years in prison," Carlisle said. "We'll sit there and say he shouldn't be given parole. It's that simple."