A serial drunk driver described as "the worst of the worst" was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison Friday for his latest charge of being intoxicated behind the wheel.

Terry Naugle, a 52-year-old from Truro, N.S., pleaded guilty last October to drunk driving, driving while banned, refusing a Breathalyzer and leaving the scene of an accident.

He was arrested after slamming his car into a vehicle stopped on the side of a rural Nova Scotia highway in March, 2009. A woman and her child inside the car were not seriously hurt, but Naugle fled the scene in his badly damaged car and later on foot, stumbling across a busy four-lane highway to escape police.

Naugle had been released from prison less than a month before the crash and was under a driving ban at the time.

Crown prosecutor Cheryl Byard had asked for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, five for impaired driving and five more for driving while prohibited.

The defence argued for a four-year sentence.

In the past 30 years, Naugle has amassed 23 impaired driving and related convictions. He has been convicted 15 times of driving while disqualified and been handed a total of nearly 22 years in prison on these charges, but no individual sentence has exceeded three years. Each time he has been let out of jail, he has re-offended, ignoring repeat court orders not to drive.

Julia McMillan, who along with her 12-year-old daughter was in the car Naugle hit last year, told the Globe and Mail that it was "unforgivable" that he could not be jailed for longer sentences.

"It's really scary to live in a country where this is as good as it gets," she said. "In our Criminal Code, Terry Naugle will have to kill someone to be locked up indefinitely."

Judith and David McMillan, both in their early 40s, had been returning from a shopping trip to Halifax when their SUV ran out of gas. David McMillan pulled over to the side of an off-ramp and went to a nearby gas station.

The other two stayed in the vehicle, wearing seatbelts.

McMillan said she could see her husband jogging back with the fuel when a passing car slammed their vehicle. It glanced off the rear corner, where Mr. McMillan would've been standing pouring gas had he been a few seconds earlier.

The driver fled. McMillan quickly refuelled and gave chase, while his wife called 911. They caught up with the other car in a nearby gas-station parking lot and boxed it in. A middle-aged man emerged, walking unsteadily and his speech slurred.

"We could smell the fumes of the alcohol," McMillan said. "He said, ‘get out of my way, I have to have a leak.' "

RCMP officers who were having supper at the adjoining restaurant were called and Naugle was taken into custody, but not before leading them on a brief chase across the four-lane highway.

Julia McMillan and the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving have called for Naugle to be declared a dangerous offender, which would mean he could be locked up indefinitely.

But because Naugle has never killed or seriously injured anyone while driving drunk, he has so far received only a long string of relatively short sentences. He has never faced a more serious charge – one that carried a possible 10-year sentence – the usual threshold for seeking long-term dangerous-offender status.

Prosecutors in Alberta and Ontario have asked courts for dangerous offender status for repeat drunk drivers, but the courts have instead ordered long-term offender status.

Judges hand out that designation to people convicted of a serious personal injury offence who are likely to re-offend. Long-term offenders can be placed under supervision for 10 years after their prison sentence is completed.

Bobby Naugle, who has attended several of his brother's court hearings over the past year, doesn't defend his record, but said it would be wrong to lock him up indefinitely. He said his brother can't read and can't make change from a $10 bill and should be forced to go to a facility for treatment of his alcohol abuse.