Injuries Related to Texting and Walking on a Rise, Study

A new study has found that distracted walking leads to more injuries per mile than distracted driving.

The study led by Dietrich Jehle, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Buffalo claims that texting while walking not just distracts the pedestrians but could also put users in harm's way. Consequences of distracted walking include tripping over clutter, stepping into heavy traffic, falling down the stairs and above all impaired walking.  In short texting is more dangerous than talking.

"When texting, you're not as in control with the complex actions of walking," said Jehle, MD, in a news release. "While talking on the phone is a distraction, texting is much more dangerous because you can't see the path in front of you."

He continues to say that the injuries caused by texting and walking are more frequent than injuries from car accidents.

There three types of distractions a pedestrian faces: manual, visual and cognitive.

In manual distraction, people are involved in some other task; in visual distraction they are occupied watching something else and in the cognitive distraction their mind is elsewhere.

According to the study reports, annually nearly tens of thousands of pedestrians are rushed into the emergency rooms and out of these, about10 percent visits are due to accidents that are cell phone related. Also, the number of texting and walking mishaps are more than what the official statistics state.

The last 10 years have seen a drastic rise in the cell phone related injury and this increase has been on par with the rise of Smartphone use.

A recent study by researchers at Ohio State University discovered that between 2004 and 2010 there was a three-fold increase in the number of pedestrians visiting the emergency room for cell phone related injuries. Adults below the age of 30 were at a higher risk for cell phone related injuries.

In order to reduce the rate of cell phone related injury, the researcher suggests the need for mobile applications that test via voice command or use the cell phone camera to showcase the approaching object when the pedestrian is engaged in texting.