Many states have made text messaging while driving a jail-time or high-fine offense after numerous deadly accidents caused legislators to take action. But with all the ensuing publicity, another downside of texting went overlooked. Did you know that texting while walking can be just as dangerous?
Just ask San Franciscan Katie Winslow*. She was walking across a busy downtown intersection, immersed in a text with her girlfriend, when she fell into a well-marked construction ditch. She’s out of her leg cast now. She was lucky.
While it might seem to be a no-brainer task to talk or text on a cellphone while walking, mounting accident statistics from towns and cities across the U.S., along with various university research studies, prove otherwise. Texting while walking resulted in so many fatal or near-fatal incidents that this past May the police chief of Fort Lee, N.J., ordered his officers to start handing out $85 tickets to people texting while jaywalking.
That hubbub resulted in the press incorrectly reporting that the Fort Lee law prohibited texting while walking. Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli corrected the reports, saying fines were only levied against jaywalkers, noting the increasing numbers of pedestrian crashes — more than 40 so far this year — caused by distracted “texters.” “People are texting on their cellphones and not paying attention,” Ripoli said.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................Im a 76 year old Nutcase.. TOMMY LOVES YOU ALL. .. I'm a committed atheist.
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