A 20-year-old Kauai woman was sentenced to one year in jail and 10 years’ probation in connection with a 2011 crash that killed a 16-year-old girl and seriously injured another passenger.
Kauai Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe sentenced Brittney L. Kane of Koloa on Wednesday. Her sentence includes a five-year revocation of her driver’s license, 500 hours of community service and payment of more than $7,000 for restitution and funeral expenses.
Watanabe also ordered Kane to give public presentations and write letters to The Garden Island newspaper on the dangers of drunken driving and racing.
On the night of Sept. 11, 2011, Kane, then 16, had been drinking alcohol with two friends while at a birthday party in a cabana at the Aloha Beach Resort in Kapaa, the county prosecutor’s office said in a news release. Up to a dozen teens were at the party that Kane helped plan. Teens drank beer, a concoction of alcohol and fruit juice called "jungle juice" and consumed liquor Jell-O shots.
Later that night Kane and a couple of her friends drove to Hanamaulu, and were heading back to the hotel party when the accident occurred, the prosecutor’s office said.
Kane, driving a Pontiac Grand Am, started racing with a Mazda RX7 on the highway, traveling faster than 75 mph in a 40 mph zone, the news release said. The teen lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree on the side of the highway.
Back-seat passenger Nahele Kapua, 16, was ejected from the vehicle upon impact and died at the scene. Kane and a second passenger were extricated from the car, which came to a rest on its hood after the vehicle flipped over, according to the news release.
Kane had a blood-alcohol level of 0.153, well above the legal limit of 0.08. The legal drinking age in Hawaii is 21.
A grand jury indicted Kane in 2013 in connection with the fatal crash.
In February, Kane pleaded no contest under a plea agreement to charges of manslaughter and first-degree negligent injury.
