On a rain-slick highway east of Raleigh, Billy Ray Bullock Jr. caused a wreck last December that killed an N.C. State University professor, his wife and son. Bullock, 35, was speeding. The SUV he was driving -- its tires were nearly bald -- swerved across the U.S. 64 median and crashed head-on into a car driven by Charles Burger Jr., 57. Barbara Burger, 57, and Ivan Burger, 20, were also killed.

Bullock had an awful driving record: at least four convictions for speeding, two for driving with a revoked license and one for operating a vehicle without a license, plus other charges.

The Burgers were driving to visit a family member in Wilson. It was Christmas Day. Now North Carolina's justice system has given Bullock his gift.

After he pleaded guilty Thursday in Wake District Court to three counts of misdemeanor death by vehicle, Judge Kristin Ruth waived a 120-day jail sentence and sentenced the Raleigh resident to three years of supervised probation. Even though a flattened cable barrier in the median contributed to this tragedy, the sentence was too light to fit the circumstances.

Yes, accidents happen, and even safe drivers have close calls. The justice system doesn't view motor vehicle fatalities as it does most other violent deaths, and that's probably right.

But with his record of dangerously flouting the traffic laws, Bullock should be spending time behind bars. And this is one driver who should never get his license back. Yet under the sentence, which prosecutors concurred in, he'll surrender that license for a year.

A News & Observer series now in progress, called Speed Unlimited, examines speeders' punishment, or lack of it, in North Carolina. To say the least, the Bullock sentence underlines the seriousness of the subject.