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Do Not Text While Crossing the Road

by Savitha C Muppala on Dec 14 2011 10:26 PM

 Do Not Text While Crossing the Road
Your life is in danger if you text on your cell phone while crossing the road.
Mobile phone usage while crossing the road distracts a person, which increasingly makes them more susceptible to being injured or killed.

However, most of the people are just too unaware of how grave the quandary is because there are no official figures.

Police, paramedics and pedestrian groups believe texting or using mobile devices while walking can be almost as dangerous as using a phone while driving, the Telegraph reported.

According to Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby, the spot tests he conducted in the city revealed that at least one in 10 pedestrians were using a mobile device while crossing the road.

"The worst part about this is that the statistics are not just under-reported, they are not reported at all, so we don't know how many accidents or deaths have occurred because someone was distracted by their phone or iPod," Mr Scruby said.

"It just goes down as a pedestrian being hit."

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Scruby asserted that when people are distracted by mobile phones they "behave like sheep" and follow others on to the road without looking.

"The first one generally looks and the rest follow without looking."

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Paramedic David Morris said that emergency workers are observing a rise in these types of incidents.

"People focus on what they're doing on the phone and not on crossing the road," Morris said.

He recently treated a man in his early 20s who walked into the path of a car, as he was texting and not looking where he was going. He suffered from limb injuries.

"These smartphones are a very beneficial tool but at the same time a very dangerous tool."

Police traffic services commander Superintendent John Hartley claimed that getting the data is difficult, as most of the time people do not admit that they were using their phones at the time.

"We know they're distracted and they cause distractions for people driving cars and for pedestrians," Hartley said.

"People should be aware of the situation around them and if they don't need to be texting while walking, particularly while crossing roads, then don't do it," Hartley added.

Source-ANI


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