Fingernail painter convicted in motorcyclist's death

Here's a sobering reminder of the havoc that distracted car drivers can wreak. A woman in America who was painting her fingernails while driving and smashed into a motorcyclist, killing her, has been convicted of felony reckless homicide.

Lora Hunt, 49, reportedly showed no emotion when the jury read the verdict after deliberating a little more than three hours on May 6. The trial lasted two days.

Hunt, a nurse, faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced next month.

Anita Zaffke, 56, was killed when Hunt, who police said admitted she was painting her fingernails at the time of the crash, smashed into the back of Zaffke's motorcycle at stoplights near Chicago on May 2, 2009.

At the trial, Hunt testified she had stopped painting her nails before the fatal crash. Her defence lawyer argued Hunt's actions were negligent, like eating a sandwich or talking on a mobile phone in a car, and not reckless.

But the prosecutor argued - ultimately successfully -- that Hunt acted recklessly.

"It is not the same as biting a sandwich. ...It's a voluntary disablement," the prosecutor was quoted as saying. "She might as well have been in the back seat making a sandwich."

In 2009, the American Motorcyclists Association adopted a formal position statement that endorsed enhanced penalties for those who injure or kill others while operating a motor vehicle when distracted or inattentive operation is involved, with the goal of preventing motorcycle crashes from occurring in the first place.

Click on the following link to read that AMA statement.