Diana Kuyper: Danger, distracted pedestrians ahead

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Columnist Diana Kuyper

Updated: January 31, 2011 2:42AM

Three cheers for Little Rock, Ark., for proposing to crack down on pedestrians distracted by their electronic gadgets.

I can relate to this problem after a teenager, intent on text-messaging, almost ran into me when I was walking. I saw her coming toward me, head down and intently concentrating on her phone.

I was curious to see what she would do as we were about to collide. I side-stepped her just as she looked up and yelped. She was totally unaware of her surroundings.

I live in a small town with little traffic, so I can’t imagine the more serious problems cities have with pedestrians texting or listening to their iPods, running on the road or walking down the sidewalk. I learned how dangerous this can be last winter when I went walking at night listening to my iPod and almost got hit by a truck because I didn’t hear it coming up behind me. That was the last time I went walking with my iPod.

Reflecting on these two incidents, they both seem pretty dumb, but can’t compare to the incident earlier this month of a woman who fell into a shopping mall fountain while texting. Video of Cathy Cruz Marrero’s tumble earlier this month went viral on YouTube.

Watch it and you can see just how dangerous texting and walking can be! Her words of wisdom about the incident when she appeared on “Good Morning America” were “don’t text and walk.”

That’s a statement based on common sense, but clearly she only learned that after her public embarrassment. While her incident is funny, the reason for her tumble is no laughing matter.

According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, pedestrian fatalities account for about 12 percent of overall traffic deaths and that’s likely to rise. Nicholas Jouriles, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, told NPR recently that emergency rooms around the country are reporting more cases of pedestrians injured while texting or otherwise talking on cell phones and listening to MP3 players.

New York lawmakers are also proposing restrictions on using cell phones and other electronic devices. The message is clear: Distracted pedestrians are dangerous, more to themselves than anyone else.

Diana Kuyper’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. You can e-mail her at dkuyper4760@msn.com.