From the NYTimes:"Distracted driving has gained much attention lately because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cellphones to talk and text.
But phones aren't just distracting drivers; they make pedestrians inattentive too.
Distracted walking combines a pedestrian, an electronic device and an unseen crack in the sidewalk, the pole of a stop sign, a toy left on the living room floor or a parked (or sometimes moving) car.
Examples include a 16-year-old boy who walked into a telephone pole while texting and suffered a concussion; a 28-year-old man who tripped and fractured a finger on the hand gripping his cellphone; and a 68-year-old man who fell off the porch while talking on a cellphone, spraining a thumb and an ankle and causing dizziness."
References:
Forget Gum. Walking and Using Phone Is Risky. NYTimes.
Video: Stop texting while driving. Terrifying. All drivers should watch this.
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.
This is incredibly and sadly accurate. I cannot tell you how many times I have been on campus walking and have seen nearly every head down texting. There is at least always one collision witnessed between two texters between classes. It is dangerous. As a culture we have become obsessed with looking down it seems.
ReplyDeleteForget about walking i have so many driving their cars or two- wheelers while talking on phone. I seriously get annoyed while seeing that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the earlier comments. The alarming thing is that we see so many people doing this and heard or read news about accidents but it seems like, people are trying to ignore this reality.
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