The lesson to learn from Lora Hunt

Tragic.

That's the first word that comes to mind when reading about Anita Zaffke and Lora Hunt.

Then comes senseless and avoidable. We imagine that's true of most who have read the awful tale of how Lora Hunt was painting her fingernails while driving in Lake Zurich, got distracted and ended up crashing into Zaffke's motorcycle, killing her.

What we're not sure of is whether enough drivers will look inward and learn a lesson from this case. We urge you to reconsider what you do while driving and not make the same mistake Hunt did.

Some say the 18-month periodic imprisonment sentence given Hunt by Lake County Circuit Judge Fred Foreman is not enough. She did, after all, kill someone. She could have been sentenced to five years in prison. Instead, she serves her time at the Lake County jail and gets released for such things as work and medical care.

Hunt is not an evil, inconsiderate woman with a history of bad behavior. She's a wife, a mother, a person driving suburban roads just like so many of us.

She made a dumb and thoughtless decision. How many of us have done dumb and thoughtless things while driving but been lucky enough not to kill somebody? More than we'd like to admit, we bet. We may not have been painting our nails, but we might have been eating a sandwich, tying our necktie, shaving, checking out the makeup in the mirror, trying to find a station on the radio, yelling at the kids to quiet down, helping the kids buckle a seat belt with one hand while driving with another, and on and on and on.

The lesson in this story is that driving is harder than it looks. This woman, appropriately, will serve jail and probation time and she's been tied to the public whipping post on the Internet, but perhaps harshest of all, she has to live the rest of her life knowing that her carelessness killed somebody - also a wife and mother. That ought to remind us all to strive to be a little less careless in our attitude toward driving.

Foreman hopes his sentence sends that message. "In our society, distracted driving is becoming an epidemic. (People) don't appreciate how dangerous that vehicle is or what they could do to other people."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made distracted driving awareness a leading cause nationwide in an effort to change habits. An increasing number of states have passed laws designed to curb the problem.

In the end, however, it's up to us. Greg Zaffke II, Anita's son, attended Hunt's sentencing. "We appreciate the judge's acknowledgment of the seriousness of distracted driving. Please think and drive."

Potent words. Heed his advice.