The trolley driver who struck and killed 76-year-old pedestrian Ernest Urata in Kakaako in 2018 pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree negligent homicide.

David Kmetz, then 52, had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.182, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 after the Nov. 15, 2018, crash.

He changed his not guilty plea Wednesday morning before Circuit Judge Paul Wong. Kmetz’s trial had been set for this past Monday.

Kmetz is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 25, and faces a possible 10-year sentence.

Urata had worked as a programmer analyst with Aerospace Corp. in Los Angeles until he retired about 20 years ago.

He had been living in Nevada, and returned to Honolulu three to four years before his death to spend time with his brother and sister, said Wayne Kekina, an attorney representing the family in a lawsuit.

Kekina said he spoke to Urata’s sister, Lorna Kawahara, Wednesday afternoon following the change of plea.

Kawahara said she expected Kmetz to plead guilty, and that both he and the company should be held accountable, Kekina said.

Kmetz, driving an Oli Oli Trolley with eight Japanese tourists aboard, was heading east on Auahi Street when he attempted to turn left onto Cooke Street and hit Urata, who police believe was in a marked crosswalk, said police and Travel Plaza Transportation.

Urata died at the scene.

According to Kekina, Urata had been walking mauka on Cooke and was crossing Auahi in the Ewa crosswalk when the trolley driver failed to yield to the pedestrian and hit him.

Urata got stuck under the trolley and was dragged over two crosswalks until he fell out from under it and was run over by the rear tire, Kekina said.

Police said Kmetz declined to take a breath alcohol test at the scene. He also told police he had a shot of vodka 15 minutes before he hit Urata and they found a half-full bottle of vodka in his pants pocket.

He was released the day after his arrest while police conducted their investigation, including a review of a video of the incident.

Kmetz was hired March 13, 2018, by Travel Plaza Transportation, eight months before the crash, according to company president Yujiro Kuwabara.

At the time he was hired, he had a current commercial driver’s license and had passed drug and alcohol testing, Kuwabara said.

He added that Kmetz also had endorsements from government and regulatory agencies that set requirements for driving buses and trolleys used by the company.

His license was revoked Nov. 19, 2018, for one year and he was not allowed to drive a motor vehicle pending this case.

Prosecutors charged Kmetz on Sept. 16 with first-degree negligent homicide, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was arrested and pleaded not guilty on Oct. 17 to the negligent homicide charge, a Class B felony, and was placed on supervised release.

The civil complaint, filed Oct. 29 on behalf of Urata’s estate in 1st Circuit Court, names Kmetz, Travel Plaza Transportation and JTB Hawaii Travel.

Kuwabara said days after the crash that the pedestrian’s death saddened the entire JTB organization, and the company had launched an internal investigation.

Travel Plaza Transportation’s internal records showed its vehicles, during the first nine months of 2018, were involved in 54 accidents, of which 22 were characterized as preventable, he said.

At the time of the crash, the company employed 85 drivers and in 2017 carried about 2.5 million passengers on bus and trolley rides in Hawaii.