COMMENTARY | Anna Zaffke will never again spend Thanksgiving with her family. She will have no more Christmases, she cannot go to work, and she cannot perform community service.
The woman who killed her will do all of those things.
Lora Hunt, who was painting her nails while driving, rear-ended Zaffke when she was stopped at a red light on her motorcycle, killing the Illinois mother. Hunt was sentenced to 18 months in jail, but is allowed to leave prison to work, attend church, and perform community service, according to the Chicago Tribune. She will also spend Christmas and Thanksgiving at home with her family this year, though her bid for release earlier than the one scheduled for Jan. 22, 2012, was denied.
Hunt received a pretty lenient sentence to start. She was painting her nails while operating a motor vehicle. As most people only have two hands, clearly, she had none with which to steer. I have yet to meet the woman who can paint her nails without looking at them, so she likely did not have her eyes on the road either. There is absolutely no one who could believe that those actions were anything other than reckless; anyone would realize painting your nails while driving could end in death.
And yet Hunt gets to spend the holidays with her family.
Punishment in our justice system serves two functions. One is deterrence, with the idea that others who may undertake similar action will see the consequences are not worth the risk. The other function is punishment. The treatment of Hunt fails on both counts.
In Hunt’s case, it was nail polish. For millions of others, it’s texting while driving. For my friend’s father, it was an unsecured dog distracting the driver of another car, causing a collision that took her dad’s life.
Distracted driving kills people. Even if the deaths seem out of the ordinary and unlikely, they are far more predictable than that. Cars weigh tons, and mere humans do not withstand the force of them very well. Each one of us should be doing everything we can to ensure that the others who share the roads with us are not put at risk due to our own needless and trivial-turned-deadly behavior.
Anyone who looks at Hunt, considers her sentence and allowances, sees a crime treated as a mistake, a generally decent woman whose error in judgment resulted in the death of another motorist. That picture is grossly inaccurate.
Lora Hunt took a vehicle and piloted it as though she was the only person who mattered. Anna Zaffke lost her life. Greg Zaffke II lost his mother. Actions like that don’t deserve holidays off.