SAN DIEGO -- A former deputy sheriff is facing eight years in prison for being drunk when he plowed his vehicle into a tow truck on a local freeway, seriously injuring the tow truck driver and a motorist he was helping.

James P. Costello, who faced a maximum term of nine years, was sentenced Thursday.

Costello, 42, pleaded guilty Feb. 15 to felony driving under the influence causing injury and admitted to an allegation that he personally caused great bodily injury to two people.

The 12-year sheriff's department veteran had a blood-alcohol level of .22 percent -- nearly three times the legal driving limit of .08 percent -- when he crashed his 1996 Ford F-350 into the back of a flatbed tow truck, injuring truck driver John Naraka Coston and the motorist he was assisting, Alfredo Garcia.

Costello pleaded guilty to reckless driving in 2001 after being charged with driving under the influence. In that case, Costello's vehicle went off a freeway access road and onto Interstate 5, and Costello was injured.

Defense attorney Jim Bishop told Judge Timothy Walsh that Costello was an admitted alcoholic who had been enrolled in a rehabilitation program for the past five months.