Texting And Walking Could Put You In The Emergency Room
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 1,200 people were treated in US emergency rooms last year after walking-related mishaps associated with handheld devices.
How many people have you seen walking, looking into their phone, not paying attention to anything around them? Are you one of those people? Turns out this behavior is more dangerous than you think.
There could be an open man hole, a car turning in front of you, or a child that is right in front of you but not in your sight.
Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital, said he’s treated injuries including facial fractures, broken noses, sprained ankles and even blunt head trauma. And in Fort Lee, NJ, just across the Hudson River from New York City, 74 texting pedestrians were struck and two were killed in the past year alone.
While states like Delaware, Utah, Arkansas and Illinois have tried to pass distracted walking bills, all have failed. Officials in Fort Lee, alarmed by the incidents there, have started handing out $85 tickets to residents caught jaywalking and texting to try to cut down on those accidents.
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