BANGOR – A Caribou man was sentenced on Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to five months in jail for causing an accident 19 months ago on Interstate 95.

Joey White, 22, on Wednesday changed his pleas to guilty as his jury trial was about to begin. He pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors. He faced up to a year in jail.

Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Greg Campbell said Thursday he was pleased with the length of White’s sentence.

The prosecutor also said he expected the Secretary of State’s Office would suspend White’s driver’s license for at least two years.

“I argued to [Superior Court] Justice [Jeffrey] Hjelm that White had shown a complete disregard for others,” Campbell said. “He had stopped in Medway and noticed that he was losing air brake pressure but did not check them. If he had, he’d have seen he had a broken air hose.”

White was convicted of operating under the influence of intoxicants in November 2003 and again in November 2005 while the accident case was pending.

Alcohol was not a factor in the truck accident, according to the prosecutor.

White was driving a potato truck, owned by Green Meadows Farm in Mapleton, south on Interstate 95 in Bangor when his brakes failed about 6:30 p.m. Sept. 17, 2004. His truck struck the rear of the 1995 Toyota Tercel driven by Megan Smith, then 22, of Lamoine, sending it into the back of the tractor-trailer in front of her. That truck was driven by Justin Haley, then 44, of Turner.

Smith and Haley had slowed down as they entered a construction zone on I-95 near the Interstate 395 exit.

The woman was treated for minor back and neck injuries at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and was released later that day. Neither of the truck drivers was injured.

Smith was wearing a seat belt, according to Maine State Police Trooper Darren Vittums, who was dispatched to the accident scene.

Traffic in the southbound lanes, which already had been reduced to one lane due to construction, was backed up for more than two hours.