Walking while texting is on the rise, could lead to more accidents

Humans are crazy. Smartphone screens have become our new reality. This leads to accidents as people walk while texting: walking into telephone poles, walking off cliffs etc. A recent study by Injury Prevention has suggested that this activity is potentially fatal and has resulted in some of the 4,000 pedestrian fatalities that occur on an annual basis.

 According to their study of 1,102 pedestrians, Injury Prevention had this to say:

Nearly one-third (29.8%) of all pedestrians performed a distracting activity while crossing. Distractions included listening to music (11.2%), text messaging (7.3%) and using a handheld phone (6.2%). Text messaging, mobile phone use and talking with a companion increased crossing time. Texting pedestrians took 1.87 additional seconds (18.0%) to cross the average intersection (3.4 lanes), compared to undistracted pedestrians. Texting pedestrians were 3.9 times more likely than undistracted pedestrians to display at least 1 unsafe crossing behaviour (disobeying the lights, crossing mid-intersection, or failing to look both ways). Pedestrians listening to music walked more than half a second (0.54) faster across the average intersection than undistracted pedestrians.

Lets all be careful out there people.