Recently, while driving at a neighborhood friendly speed near Greenlake, a female runner who was looking at her phone proceeded to cross the street in front of me without even slowing down or looking up. When I questioned her disregard for safety, she gestured that it was a crosswalk.
While not a marked crosswalk, I agreed with her that technically, yes, an intersection of streets does denote a crosswalk for pedestrians, but doesn’t she still have the responsibility to at least look up and make sure there are no cars coming?
In recognition of Distracted Driving Awareness Month, between Today and next Tuesday
The Washington’s Traffic Safety Commission says officers across the state will be cracking down on distracted driving as part of a national enforcement campaign. Komo News reports that the campaign has the slogan, “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” Yet, the epidemic of distracted driving seems to only touch the surface of how the distraction of smartphones and other digital devices are increasingly infiltrating so many areas of our lives. In many cases these distracted behaviors are putting people in harms way.
Distracted Walking: Putting thousands of pedestrians in emergency rooms each year
In a 2012 study conducted by the University of Washington, pedestrians who texted were four times less likely to look before crossing streets, stay in crosswalks, or obey traffic signals. NPR reported that the study watched more than 1,100 pedestrians at 20 intersections in Seattle that have had the most pedestrian injuries over three years.
The conclusion of the study published in The Injury Prevention Journal, stated:
Distracting activity is common among pedestrians, even while crossing intersections. Technological and social distractions increase crossing times, with text messaging associated with the highest risk. Our findings suggest the need for intervention studies to reduce risk of pedestrian injury.
Just as You Teach Kids to look Both Ways before Crossing Streets, Teach by example not to look at Mobile Devices While Walking
Healthline.com reported on an Ohio State University study that looked at the most recent impacts of distracted pedestrians.
The authors “found that the number of pedestrian ER visits for injuries related to cell phones tripled between 2004 and 2010, even though the total number of pedestrian injuries dropped during that period. The study also found that adults under 30, mainly those between the ages of 16 and 25, are most at risk for cell-phone related injuries while walking.”
Co-author of the sturdy, Jack L. Nasar, Ph.D., professor and Ph.D. program chair of city and regional programming at Ohio State University says that “If you must talk or text, pull out of the stream of pedestrian traffic and stop walking while doing it. If you’re a parent, just as you teach your children to look both ways before crossing a street, teach your children not to use their mobile devices while walking or driving.”
If the distractions of your phone is still irresistible while you’re driving or walking…
and for those texting walkers:
