Distracted pedestrians stumble into danger

[marmar]

WASHINGTON — A young man talking on a cellphone meanders along the edge of a lonely train platform at night. Suddenly he stumbles, loses his balance and pitches over the side, landing head first on the tracks.

Fortunately there were no trains approaching the Philadelphia-area station at that moment, because it took the man several minutes to recover enough to climb out of danger. But the incident, captured last year by a security camera and provided to The Associated Press, underscores the risks of what government officials and safety experts say is a growing problem: distracted walking.

On city streets, in suburban parking lots and in shopping centers, there is usually someone strolling while talking on a phone, texting with his head down, listening to music, or playing a video game. The problem isn't as widely discussed as distracted driving, but the danger is real.

Reports of injuries to distracted walkers treated at hospital emergency rooms have more than quadrupled in the past seven years and are almost certainly underreported. There has been a spike in pedestrians killed and injured in traffic accidents, but there is no reliable data on how many were distracted by electronics. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20120730/US.Distracted.Walking/

[CrispyQ]

1. I was at a red light once & watched a young girl walking & looking down while texting.

She entered the intersection, where she didn't have the right of way. Fortunately the driver entering the intersection was not talking or texting on a cell phone, saw her & stopped. She kept walking & I don't think she had a clue what had occurred.

on edit:

A slightly different topic, but a good toon to pass on whenever you get the chance!

[HappyMe]

4. I was walking to the library.

Some girl walked right into the intersection against the light. I grabbed her arm and said 'wait! stop'. She shrugged me off and said 'let go of me bitch!'. I said fine, next time they can scrape you off the street with a spatula.

[hobbit709]

2. We don't have sabertooths anymore to weed out the dumb ones.

so we now have more modern gene poll elimination techniques.

[3feetofsnow]

3. First off>>>Go Twins!

Hahahaha!!! Yeah right. Like the Twins are going to do something this year. Go Tigers!!!

I see bozos driving while on their phone and it irritates me to no end. My new pet peave!! They are slow, wandering all over the road and to top it off a nuisance to be around.

[msongs]

5. survival of the fittest - nature weeding out the weak nt