The tragic incident that occurred Tuesday morning has brought some to question the safety of helicopter landing pads in the City [“Strange noise, then disaster,” page one, March 19].

Let’s look at this with a bit more rational perspective, based on frequency of incidents over the last several years. Compared with the Tuesday incident:

You are much more likely to be murdered in the street by some demented transient.

You are dozens of times more likely to become collateral damage in a gang shootout.

You are at least 100 times more likely to be killed or maimed by an impaired hit-and-run driver (this ratio will skyrocket with the new pot laws).

You are hundreds of times more likely to be killed or injured in your own car simply going about your routine business.

Far more people are killed by lightning each year than by helicopters.

Every day, lives are saved by airlifting accident victims to hospitals. News helicopters often aid public-safety and search-and-rescue agencies. We should not let knee-jerk reactions by jerk politicians undermine a valuable resource. The very fact that this occurrence made the national news is witness to how rare it was. A similar car crash would have gone unnoticed outside the immediate vicinity.

Thomas Campbell, Mercer Island