Beware Textwalking and the Thumbs of Death!

No, really. This is one of the Lemming's serious posts.

Textwalking, walking while texting, can be dangerous. So can texting and riding a horse or cooking noodles. The problem is that reading and sending text messages takes your attention, and eyes, off where you are, onto that little screen in your hand.

When people text and walk, Sometimes they run into things. And, sometimes things run into them.

• "ER docs: Don't text and walk, skate _ or cook"
  NPR, from Associated Press (July 30, 2008)
  • "CHICAGO July 30, 2008, 03:31 pm ET · The warning came too late for Barack Obama's adviser: Don't walk and text at the same time.
  • "Obama aide Valerie Jarrett fell off a Chicago curb several weeks ago while her thumbs were flying on her Blackberry.
  • " 'I didn't see the sidewalk and I twisted my ankle,' Jarrett said. 'It was a nice wake-up call for me to be a lot more careful in the future, because I clearly wasn't paying attention and I should have.'..."
• "Letting fingers do the texting can be a real pain"
  Houston Chronicle (July 30, 2008)
  "Doctors: Distracted pedestrians, bicyclists, and even skateboarders, can suffer injuries"
  • "The road rash on his left elbow was the mark of multi-tasking gone awry. With a phone in hand and a skateboard underfoot, 15-year-old Kenny Kitchen said he didn't see the bump in the sidewalk that tipped him down the stairs earlier this week. He was text messaging.
  • "He shrugs off the scrape on his elbow.
  • " 'It was nothing,' he said Wednesday afternoon, taking a break from skateboarding with three buddies in downtown Houston...."
• This is the important part of this post:
  "Injury Prevention"
  American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation (undated)
  "Text Messaging: Emergency Physicians Express Safety Concerns As Kids Go Back To School"
  • "'Plain old common sense' advised; don't text while walking, driving, rollerblading
  • "The nation's youngsters will soon be headed back to school and making new friends in new classes, as well as catching up with old buddies – activities that these days typically spark a flurry of text-messaging, especially among teens and young adults. But the nation's emergency physicians say they are seeing a dangerous trend that can go hand-in-hand with texting: a rise in injuries and deaths related to sending text messages at inappropriate times, such as while walking, driving, biking or rollerblading...."

Some of the emergency room patients just tripped over something or ran into a sign. Then there are those like the young woman in Chicago, who was on the phone when she stepped into the street. Odds are good that she saw the pickup that hit her, since she dropped her phone on the spot, but landed over 20 feet away. She died in the emergency room.