SENDAI (Kyodo) A 27-year-old man was sentenced Monday to the maximum 20 years in prison for killing three pedestrians and injuring 15 others while driving under the influence of alcohol.

Hikari Sato, 27, received the sentence at the Sendai District Court for reckless driving. The incident occurred in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, on the morning of May 22.

Sato was asleep at the wheel of an SUV when the vehicle ran a red light and hit a group of high school students and other pedestrians crossing the road.

Megumi Hosoi, 15, and two others were killed.

Sato and his lawyer had argued he was able to walk straight after the accident and was not seriously drunk.

But prosecutors likened the act to indiscriminate murder and demanded 20 years in prison, the harshest sentence that can be applied for the crime. They said Sato had turned himself into "a weapon."

"This kind of disaster used to be unheard of, and it is therefore appropriate to hand down the maximum prison term," the court said in a statement.