Texting while walking 'not safe'

Standing on the curb at Horne and Hillsborough streets in Raleigh, Laura Gilleran wanted to get off the phone before the light turned green.

"OK, Mom, I love you," she said. "OK. OK."

Gilleran snapped her phone shut as the pedestrian signal chirped its "walk now" tune. After checking the cars that were slowing to a stop in front of the N.C. State University campus, she started across busy Hillsborough Street.

If she'd still been in the middle of her phone conversation, she said, she'd still be back on the sidewalk.

"I don't use my phone when I'm crossing the street," said Gilleran, 27, of Raleigh. "If you can't hear a car coming and you don't see what's going on, it's not safe. It's not safe."

That's what Kumar Trivedi says, too. He oversees the bicycle and pedestrian division at the state Department of Transportation, and he recently alerted pedestrians about the dangers of distracted walking.

Put away your mobile phone and unplug your mobile music before you cross the street, he said, so you can see what's coming.

"You need to be aware of your surroundings when you cross the road," Trivedi said. "School is opening up, and the weather is so good that people are walking around. Sometimes we need to remind the public, as we remind our children, what to do and what not to do."

About 2,500 pedestrians are struck by cars in North Carolina each year, with about 170 of them killed and an additional 240 injured seriously. Investigating officers report apparent alcohol use by pedestrians in about 12 percent of these crashes - that's triple the alcohol rate reported for the drivers.

More study needed

Safety experts have developed estimates about the hazards of distracted driving, but there are no solid numbers for pedestrians distracted by their iPods and Androids.

"You'll read in a newspaper or hear about a cellphone being knocked out of somebody's hand, or a cellphone found on the pavement at the scene of a pedestrian crash," said Charlie Zegeer, who heads the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center.

One case involved an exchange student at UNC-Chapel Hill who was wearing music headphones as she jogged across the campus in October 2008. She died when she ran into the path of a bus. Investigators concluded that she never heard or saw the danger.

Other examples from research:

Ohio State University researchers reported that 1,000 pedestrians visited hospital emergency rooms in 2008 for injuries they suffered after they tripped or hit something while they were talking or texting on their mobile phones.

Phone distraction was especially hazardous for Londoners on one busy street, where 68,000 texting mishaps were reported in 2007. Authorities wrapped lampposts with padding so these walking zombies wouldn't be hurt when they bumped into them.

A study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that school children using cellphones took 20 percent longer to cross the street and were 20 percent less likely to look both ways. These slow-crossing phone users also were 43 percent more likely to get hit by a car.

'It won't happen to me'

Lauren Brown didn't hang up her phone Monday when she walked across Hillsborough Street to get lunch. The Road Worrier asked whether she felt she pays enough attention to the traffic while she's on the phone.

"Probably not," said Brown, 24, of Cary.

"I pay attention to that sign," she said, pointing to the pedestrian crosswalk signal. "But probably not, like, the whole looking left and right thing.

"I guess everyone thinks nothing really bad can happen to them."