FACTS

1. The solution to distracted walking is a simple one: Don’t use your cell phone or engage in other distracting activities while walking. Focus solely on the task at hand – getting from point A to point B in one piece, and worry about checking your phone when you get there.
2. Injuries caused by being distracted due to using a cellphone while walking has become so common that National Safety Council has actually added “distracted walking” as a category in their statistical report Injury Facts.
3. People who text while walking are 60% more likely to be injured or cause injury than non-texters. Scientist call the phenomenon, “inattentive blindness”; they state the human brain can only adequately focus on one task at a time. When you are texting or talking on the phone and trying to walk, you cannot give full attention to both tasks.
4. According to the statement by the National Safety Council, employers should address the risk just as they have addressed distracted driving. Pedestrians and drivers using cell phones are both impaired and too mentally distracted to fully focus on their surroundings, according to a white paper released by the National Safety Council.

STATS

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 5,000 pedestrians were killed and another 76,000 injured in traffic accidents in 2012. Pedestrian fatalities are getting worse each year, perhaps due to the use of smart phones and other devices.
• While cell phone distracted walking injuries were most common among women and those ages 40 and younger, the issue is impacting all age groups. Twenty-one percent of those injured were 71 and older. Talking on the phone accounted for 62 percent of injuries, the most common of which were dislocation or fracture, sprains or strains and concussions. Nearly 80 percent of the injuries were due to a fall.
• Typing (texting) or reading a text alters a pedestrian’s gait, speed, and walking pattern, according to a recent study.
• Teens and young adults, ages 16 to 25, were most likely to be injured as distracted pedestrians, and most were hurt while talking rather than texting: Talking on the phone accounted for 69% of injuries between 2004 and 2010. Texting accounted for 9% of injuries during the same period.
• Distracted pedestrians may have been a contributing factor in the 4,200 pedestrian deaths and 70,000 injuries in traffic crashes in 2010, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.