A Danger To Motorists – Texting Pedestrians

Pedestrians busy texting (American-speak for finger-jabbing the smartphone) pose enough of a danger to motorists to warrant introducing a law to ban texting while walking and require pedestrians to use hands-free attachments on their electronic devices. According to a New Jersey assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt,
“Distracted pedestrians, like distracted drivers, present a potential danger to themselves and drivers on the road. An individual crossing the road distracted by their smartphone presents just as much danger to motorists as someone jaywalking and should be held, at minimum, to the same penalty.”

If the law is passed, people caught texting while walking would face fines of up to $50, 15 days imprisonment or both, which is the same penalty as jaywalking. Half of the fine would be allocated to safety education about the dangers of walking and texting, said Lampitt.

This isn’t new in New Jersey; in 2012, police in Fort Lee, NJ started issuing $85 jaywalking tickets to ‘petextrians’. Thomas Ripoli, chief of the Fort Lee Police Department said, “It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware.”

In a Ohio State University study conducted in 2013, using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a database maintained by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), which samples injury reports from 100 hospitals around the country, statistics from 2005 to 2010 show a significant rise in injuries related to cellphone use for pedestrians in public areas.

Although the data showed a little over 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms due to cellphone-related incidents, Jack Nasar, co-author of that study and professor of city and regional planning at The Ohio State University, believed the number of injuries to distracted pedestrians is actually much higher than the statistics suggested; as much as 1,300 times higher in reality.

Interestingly, the statistics showed talking on the phone accounting for about 69 percent of injuries, compared to texting (about 9 percent). However, texting-related injuries could be much higher with the current widespread use of messaging apps.

In another study by the National Safety Council a majority of those injured were female and most were 40 or younger. Talking on the phone was the most prevalent activity at the time of injury, while texting accounted for 12%. Nearly 80% of the injuries occurred as the result of a fall, while 9% occurred from the pedestrian striking a motionless object.

The Pew Research Center also conducted a study which showed 53 percent of American cellphone users have bumped into someone/something or been bumped into by someone who was using a phone.

Elsewhere, in 2013, a woman in Melbourne, Australia fell off a pier because she was busy checking her Facebook page while walking.

And while Malaysia isn’t quite yet a pedestrian society (the MRT could change this to an extent), it still pays to be mindful of your surroundings while using the phone especially when crossing the road.