Distracted drivers threaten safety, too

Following the recent spate of tragic deaths associated with firearms [“Deadly year,” page one, June 3], I’ve been hearing local talk-radio hosts asking their listeners to weigh in regarding Seattle’s relative safety.

Without question, the city has become more dangerous over the past 10 years, but the reason isn’t guns.

In my family’s experience, it is the epidemic of drivers distracted by their addiction to electronic devices.

This point isn’t made facetiously — there have been four cases just in recent months when we’ve avoided serious injury or death by the slightest of margins. In two cases, oncoming texting drivers crossed completely into our lane, taking no corrective action whatsoever. It was up to us to swerve out of their way to avoid a head-on collision.

A few days ago, a texting driver almost ran me over as I retrieved my mail. Her startled expression as I dived out of her way was one of vague annoyance.

If my family had come home to find me dead in the street, I would have been as much a victim of random, senseless violence as any of those gunshot victims.

In one sense, this scenario is less excusable, because the perpetrator isn’t some desperate soul tripped out on drugs, mentally ill or caught in a spiral of gang violence; they are simply too selfish to consider the potential tragedy inherent in their distracted driving.

— David Arntuffus, Shoreline