USA: Gebruik van mobieltjes op straat gevaarlijk

Bron: MailOnline 13 maart 2013

How a text can put you on the road to injury: Study finds that using your mobile phone while walking could be deadly

People are four times more likely to ignore traffic and disobey lights if texting
University of Washington study looked at 1,000 'real-time' pedestrians
One in three were using phones or doing something similarly distracting

Using a mobile while crossing the road could cost your life, warn researchers.

Texting while crossing the road was the riskiest activity, making people four times more likely to ignore oncoming traffic and disobey the lights, according to a new study.

Texters also took longer to cross the street at busy junctions.

Almost one in three pedestrians were using phones or doing something else distracting at the same time as they were trying to cross the road.

The findings come from a ‘real-time’ study of more than 1,000 pedestrians who were watched at busy road junctions, in the US city of Seattle.

Study leader Dr Beth Ebel, of Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, University of Washington, said, like drink driving, there should be a ‘low tolerance’ approach to pedestrian behaviour that puts both them and others at risk of serious injury.

She said ‘Some years ago no one would think twice about having a couple of drinks before getting in the car to drive home.

‘But today people know the risks and we have to get that same level of awareness in an era of growing distraction.

‘We may need advertising campaigns to get the message home’ she added.

There is increasing concern about the near trance-like state people adopt while using mobile phones and MP3 players, which psychologists call ‘divided attention’ or ‘inattentional blindness’.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247302/Texting-crossing-road-makes-times-likely-ignore-oncoming-traffic-lights.html .



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