Pedestrians and Cell Phones

There is little question that texting or speaking on a cell phone while driving a car is a hazard.  But the August 2012 Consumer Reports issue speaks to an issue I had not thought about a lot. 

"In a new survey, Consumer Reports found that 85% of Americans had in the past six months seen someone use a mobile device to talk, text, e-mail, or use apps while walking in public.  Of those who had witnesses such behavior, 52% felt that the pedestrians endangered themselves or others."

The article goes on to say that over 1,500 "nonmotorized people", (I guess there are motorized people...), were hurt nationwide in 2010 while distracted by cell phone usage.

According to researches at Stony Brook University of the SUNY system, cell phone using walkers had "significant reductions in gait velocity and an increase in lateral deviation."  In other words, they walk goofily slow and zigzagged distractedly toward whatever destination.   The Consumer Reports article noted that the SUNY Stony Brook study, "...was announced in January -- a few months before a California man nearly walked and texted his way into the arms of a black bear."

As reported by the Daily Mail:

"TV helicopter crews managed to capture an oblivious phone user walking into the path of a 250kg black bear. The video shows the homeowner calmly walking towards the giant animal, engrossed in his mobile.
However, just feet before he reaches it, he notices the huge bear - and turns and runs in the nick of time.
Residents of La Crescenta, California, were warned to be on the lookout for the bear, which was only finally contained in a back garden hours later. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies received a call of a bear sighting yesterday, KTLA-TV reported.
La Crescenta station sheriff's deputies and the Glendale Police Department responded, according to sheriff's Sgt Mark Slater.  "We did locate about a 500, 600-pound bear in this immediate area,"Sgt Slater said.
"He's been wandering through the residential area for the last several hours."  "Department of Fish and Game is en route," Mr Slater said.
"They have ultimate responsibility over it. Our role right now is if the bear is docile and just hunkering down, we'll let him continue that until Fish and Game gets here."
A police helicopter has been tracking the bear, which is believed to be the same animal that broke into a garage and pried open a refrigerator to snack on some frozen meatballs last month."

The video, which is a riot, is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bjhjk2hHZU