EDITORIAL:

Tragedies abound in the trial of Janene Johns.

They are not, however, comparable.

The death of 31-year-old Candace Tift is heartbreaking. Tift was riding her bicycle on West Coast Highway when she was struck by Johns in 2006. Tift died of massive head trauma the next day.

Tift was a caring, energetic, lovable teacher at Eastbluff Elementary School. A young woman in her prime.

For her loved ones, it must seem intolerable. Tift’s mother has endured day after day of Johns’ manslaughter trial, as attorneys show autopsy photos, question medical and forensics experts and frame their arguments. Tift’s mother has had to walk out of the courtroom to gather herself on several occasions.

Then there are Johns’ loved ones.

Many wept as they described the 53-year-old’s aberrant behavior in the weeks following her husband’s death.

According to them, Johns threatened to kill herself with a knife, emptied her bank account of $50,000 and, convinced of a coming apocalypse, bought numerous gallons of water and placed them in doorways.

A videotape of police interviewing Johns following the accident showed Johns nearly hyperventilating, putting her head to an officer’s hand and asking about Tift’s condition.

Johns acknowledges she was on at least two prescription drugs at the time of the accident. Defense attorneys claim she was suffering from Acute Stress Disorder and was in an altered state of consciousness — functioning but unconscious — when she lost control of her Lexus.

We’re not making a judgment on that one way or another.

We are saying that it seems clear that Johns was deeply traumatized by the death of her husband.

But it’s equally clear that she shouldn’t have been driving while under the influence of prescription drugs, and because of her choice to get behind the wheel, Tift paid the ultimate price, and her loved ones are left to live with that.