August 1, 2012
Number of 'distracted walking' injuries quadruple in 7 years
The number of people who have landed in U.S. emergency rooms thanks to injuries incurred while they were walking and texting, tweeting, playing video games, talking on the phone, or listening to music on headphones, has more than quadrupled in the past seven years, the Associated Press reports via The Los Angeles Times.
In 2011 alone, 1,152 people were treated for distracted walking, according to data collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and that number is likely a gross underestimate since many doctors or nurses may not have asked whether the patient was using a mobile device at the time of the accident.
Researchers at the University of Maryland identified 116 cases in which pedestrians were killed or seriously injured while wearing headphones. Two-thirds of those injuries involved men under the age of 30, and half of them involved trains.
And data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that while traffic deaths went down in 2010 from the year before, pedestrian fatalities rose by 4.2% and injuries by 19%.
So maybe it's time to stop laughing at the viral videos and time to place our phones firmly in our bags and pockets while we walk the streets.
Read full article.
Related articles on texting while walking blogged by textually over the years.
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