86-year-old wrong-way driver gets maximum 9-month sentence

The scene of the crash. (Photo: Washington State Patrol)

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A Pierce County Superior Court judge sentenced an 86-year-old man Wednesday to nine months in jail for vehicular assault in a wrong-way injury crash last November on Interstate 5.

Judge Jerry Costello rejected a lesser recommended term for Panos Palas, of University Place, and chose the maximum sentence available within the standard range.

The judge said Wednesday that Palas deserved the more severe punishment because he apparently hadn't learned his lesson from a 2012 DUI arrest. Palas got a break in that case with a reduced charge if he completed a court-ordered program.

The News Tribune reports (http://is.gd/dZDp5K ) that Palas finished that program a few months before he consumed alcohol, drove onto I-5 and headed north in the southbound lanes.

Victim Sarah Myers suffered a badly broken leg and other injuries in last year's crash.

State troopers say Palas' blood-alcohol level after the crash was 0.12. The legal intoxication threshold is 0.08 in Washington.

Palas apologized to Myers and her family.

Click here to see an earlier Q13 FOX News story on this case >>>