The 46-year-old man who had no driver’s license and 164 citations when he was arrested in connection with the hit-and-run incident that killed a McKinley High School student Feb. 15 was charged Tuesday.

Mitchel Yoshiji Miyashiro was charged with first-degree negligent homicide in the death of 16-year-old Sara Yara. Yara was in a marked crosswalk on Kapiolani Boulevard with a friend who was also wounded, according to a release from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

The investigation by police and prosecutors took nearly nine months to result in charges.

Miyashiro was charged by information, a process in which a prosecutor presents written information to a judge who then decides whether the charges are warranted, according to the DPA.

Miyashiro is also charged with collisions involving death or serious bodily injury, collisions involving bodily injury, and driving without a license.

“We would like to thank Sara Yara’s family and the broader community for their patience while waiting for these charges,” said Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm in a statement. “As much as we would like to file charges quickly, it is more important to get the job done right than to get it done fast. Negligent homicide cases require a lot of investigation to be done and forensic evidence to be collected and analyzed. We must work with police to build a solid case before we file charges, and we believe we have done that in this case. We thank HPD for its tireless work.”

Miyashiro had 164 prior traffic citations, according to state court records, and pleaded not guilty to driving without a license nine days before he allegedly killed Yara and hurt another female student who were in a marked crosswalk at the intersection of Kapiolani Boulevard and Kamakee Street near the school’s athletic field shortly after 6:40 a.m. Feb. 15.

Miyashiro turned himself in to Honolulu police at about 6:30 p.m. the next day and was arrested.

How someone with a driving record like Miyashiro’s remained on the road is a legal loophole lawmakers vowed to assess in the aftermath of Yara’s death. The car he was driving the morning Yara was killed is registered to his parents.

Miyashiro’s attorney, Richard Sing, declined comment.

Negligent homicide and collisions involving death or serious bodily injury are Class B felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Alm said if Miyashiro is convicted of first-degree negligent homicide, he will try to use Kaulana’s Law, HRS 706-662(7), which “allows enhanced sentencing of up to 20 years for a driver who did not remain at the scene of a fatal crash and render reasonable assistance.”

“It’s pretty simple,” Alm said. “If you don’t have a license, you do not belong on the road. And if you have a license, you must obey traffic laws and drive with aloha. We can prevent so many tragedies from happening by slowing down and being cautious.”

In 2005, Hawaii lawmakers decriminalized most of the state’s traffic code as part of an effort to focus resources on more serious offenses.

It allowed violators to pay fines by mail rather than appear in court.

Before 2005, police could arrest motorists for any violation of the traffic code, and violators had the right to a trial.

Offenders with money could pay an attorney and demand a trial, hoping that the officer would not be able to appear and that the traffic case would be dismissed for lack of a speedy trial.

Police would often use traffic offenses as probable cause in instances when they suspected more serious offenses were occurring.

According to state court records, Miyashiro has been issued traffic citations and charged with traffic misdemeanor crimes at a rate of more than six a year since he was cited for speeding May 29, 1996.

Since Jan. 12, 2018, he has been charged 12 times with driving without a license or driving with a suspended license.

Six of those 12 stops for driving without a license happened in 2018.

Since his initial citation for speeding in 1996, Miya­shiro has been cited for driving more than 80 miles per hour, using a fraudulent insurance card, not having insurance, driving with inoperable taillights and headlights, being in a collision involving property damage and other traffic violations.

Over the course of his 27-year stretch of traffic offenses, Miyashiro has pleaded no contest, been granted deferred acceptances of his no-contest pleas, been found guilty and paid hundreds of dollars in fines and fees, according to court records.

Not once was he jailed for his driving offenses. He is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Less than a week after the crash, state and county officials held a news conference announcing the installation of speed humps or raised crosswalks along Kapiolani Boulevard and Pensacola Street, which border the campus.

A camera to document vehicles that run red lights already was scheduled to be activated prior to the fatal incident at the Kapiolani-­Kamakee intersection as part of the state Department of Transportation’s Red-Light Safety Program.