A man who killed two women when he rammed his truck into a B.C. sushi restaurant is back in a psychiatric hospital after relapsing into alcoholism and drunk driving.

Brian Craig Irving plowed into Halu Sushi in Maple Ridge on Aug. 28, 2008, killing 46-year-old Hyeshim Oh and 19-year-old Maija-Liisa Corbett and injuring seven others. A year later, he was found not criminally responsible for the crash because of a mental disorder -- specifically, the confusion of delirium tremens caused by alcohol withdrawal.

A little less than three months after that court decision, the B.C. Review Board allowed Irving to be released from Colony Farm psychiatric hospital, against the wishes of his supervising doctor, the director of adult forensic psychiatric services and Crown prosecutors. The release was conditional on Irving staying away from alcohol, but the board refused to restrict his driving.

During a hearing on Monday, the board heard evidence that Irving had returned to drinking and driving during the last year. He was ordered to return to custody in the hospital for another 12 months and will no longer be permitted to drive.

He will, however, be allowed the possibility of leaves in the surrounding community as long as he submits to daily tests for alcohol.

B.C. Review Board chairman Bernd Walter acknowledged that Irving's relapse was exactly what experts had predicted before his release from hospital, but said that doesn't necessarily mean the board made the wrong decision.

"Mental illness is a waxing and waning kind of event," Walter told CTV News.

"If somebody's on the road to recovery, it doesn't mean it's a straight path."

He added that Irving will be able to take advantage of addiction programs during his stay in hospital.

NDP justice critic Mike Farnworth told CTV News that the board should have notified the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles about Irving's release from hospital.

"I think it raises questions in terms of the type of information that is going to the appropriate authorities," Farnworth said.

"The fact this person is allowed back on the street, there should be some notifications because clearly there is a problem."

Irving was coming off five-month booze binge at time of crash

According to review board documents, at the time of the fatal crash Irving's drinking had become so severe that his brain was actually shrinking. Earlier in 2008, he was rushed to hospital and had to undergo emergency surgery after hitting his head in a drunken fall.

Just one day before the collision, Irving ended a five-month binge that saw him pounding back about 26 ounces of vodka every day.

During his trial, experts testified that the severe effects of alcohol withdrawal had led him to believe that he was either braking or driving on the open road, rather than slamming into a crowded restaurant.

Witnesses told CTV News that they watched Irving accelerate through the strip mall parking lot before plowing into the restaurant. Oh was picking up food for her family when she was struck and killed, while Corbett was having dinner with a friend.

Among those injured in the crash was a nine-year-old boy. Some victims suffered permanent injuries, including one person who was left with a skull fracture and brain damage.

Irving was initially charged with murder and attempted murder, but those counts were reduced to criminal negligence causing death and bodily harm. He pleaded not guilty, and a trial judge ruled that he was not criminally responsible.

During the 2009 review board hearing, a psychiatrist who had assessed Irving predicted that he could return to heavy drinking within a matter of weeks if released from the hospital. She recommended that he should stay in hospital for another year.

The director of the hospital and prosecutors all agreed that Irving should not be discharged, and the Crown argued for a condition prohibiting him from driving, at the very least.

But the board ruled that the risk of releasing him was "manageable" with the support of his family and the threat of random testing.

"The possibility of the accused surreptitiously relapsing, consuming sufficient amounts of alcohol to become dependent, somehow avoiding the detection afforded by weekly reporting combined with mandatory testing and family supervision, then choosing to precipitously stop drinking, progressing to delirium tremens, and then acting dangerously was too far-fetched and improbable to justify detention in hospital," board members wrote in their decision.

The board also said that it would be up to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles to decide whether Irving would be allowed to drive.

"It will now fall to the accused to prove that the tragedy of the index offences will indeed be sufficient to maintain sobriety as he learns appropriate coping strategies and reintegrates into society," the board concluded.

With files from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington