On the day Gov. Linda Lingle signed a new "ignition interlock" law meant to deter drunken driving, Patrick Jeffrey Rowland was sentenced to five years in prison for habitual drunken driving.

Rowland, 58, has 12 previous drunken driving-related convictions and has managed to have his Hawai'i driver's license revoked for life — twice.

"For the past 30 years, this man has been on the road, drinking and driving, placing the public at risk," Deputy Prosecutor Paul Mow said in court yesterday.

Rowland pleaded guilty last year to being a habitual DUI offender, the second time he has been convicted of that offense.

The law defines a habitual offender as someone who had been convicted of three DUIs within the past 10 years.

Rowland has also been convicted of 16 charges of driving without a license and driving while his license was suspended or revoked.

"We clearly have a person who does not belong on the road," Mow told Circuit Judge Michael Wilson.

Rowland apologized to the court and the public for his past behavior and asked for a sentence of probation.

"I have a drinking problem," Rowland told Wilson. He said he has been sober since he was jailed a year ago on the habitual drunken driving charge.

His lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Kenji Akamu, called it "a sad case" involving "a good man" who sincerely wants to change.

Akamu asked Wilson to assign Rowland to the Drug Court program, which helps find substance abusers treatment programs while on probation and subjects them to close supervision by probation officers.

Wilson rejected the Drug Court request, saying Rowland represents "a very significant degree of danger" to the public.

"The most dangerous thing most adults do is to drive a car," Wilson said.

He sentenced Rowland to a maximum of five years in prison, noting that the Hawaii Paroling Authority will decide later how much time the defendant will actually spend behind bars.

IGNITION INTERLOCK

Outside court, Mow called on the state Legislature to enact tougher drunken driving laws, including gradually tougher penalties for each new offense.

Those comments came on the same morning that Lingle signed Act 88, the new ignition interlock law.

Scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2011, the law requires all first-time drunken drivers to install an ignition interlock device in their car for a year, at a cost of about $75 a month to the offender, in addition to being put on probation.

First-time offenders would not lose their license, but would be required to blow into the device, which is wired to the car's starter, to determine sobriety before being able to drive.

Other states with such laws have reduced repeat drunken driving offenses by between 50 percent to 95 percent, according to the Hawai'i Health Department.

Before the law kicks in, the administration and Legislature will still have to find money to finance the program.

LONG HISTORY

Rowland's history of drunken driving convictions began in 1978. His latest offense occurred the evening of June 2, 2008, along Kamehameha Highway near Kualoa Beach Park in Windward O'ahu.

The truck he was driving smashed into another truck parked on the shoulder of the road, then careened into a nearby rock wall.

Two hours after the collision, Rowland's blood alcohol content was measured by police at .071, slightly below the legal limit of .08.

If the case had gone to trial, Mow said, the prosecution was prepared to present expert testimony that Rowland's alcohol level at the time of the accident could have been as high as double the legal limit.

No one was injured in the collision, but Mow said the occupant of the truck that was struck, and a man standing by the side of the truck, could easily have been killed.

"Somebody could have died," the prosecutor said. "It is an extremely serious offense."

According to figures from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, Hawai'i's per-capita fatality rate because of alcohol-related wrecks ranked among the top three in the country in 2006.

Sixty-nine people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2007, almost half of all Hawai'i traffic fatalities.

Last year, there were 4,316 drunken driving arrests, the highest total in nine years.

Advertiser Staff writer Peter Boylan contributed to this report.