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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Walk And Don’t Talk: Pedestrians Distracted By Mobile Phones

Turns out we aren’t good at walking and talking at the same time, according to a study of pedestrians on their cell phones.
Nearly one-third of pedestrians (29.8%) were distracted by their mobile devices while crossing the street, say researchers of a study published online in the journal Injury Prevention.
Just as drivers who text, talk on cell phones, or adjust MP3 players increase their risk of losing control of their vehicles, pedestrians distracted by their conversations or their gadgets also put themselves at higher risk of getting into an accident. Previous work showed that people talking on cell phones were at greater risk of being careless while walking, but those studies focused on simulated environments, so the current study’s authors examined a large number of pedestrians in real-world situations.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brings to mind the the expression "can't walk and chew gum at the same time", too true of the majority of people.

Anonymous said...

I was coming up to a stop sign that intersects with Mt. Hermon road and a pedestrain walked across the intersection, head down, texting, with earphones in. Walked right in front of my car and never looked up one time! Good thing I was paying attention or they surely would have been hit.

Anonymous said...


These instruments need to be controled. pedestrians are placed in danger.

Anonymous said...

Yeah lets ban cell phones next because some people are idiots, hell forget guns and phones,lets ban PEOPLE. That makes as much sense.