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Emergency Room Visits From Distracted Walking Skyrocket (cbsnews.com)
schwit1 writes: An estimated ten percent of pedestrian injuries that land people in emergency rooms are due to distracted walking, a recent study found. That's thousands of people injured — sometimes killed. In San Diego, investigators believe Joshua Burwell may have been trying to take a picture of the sunset when he took a fatal fall some 40 feet off Sunset Cliffs. "A lot of people don't admit that they do it," said Dr. Claudette Lajam, an orthopedic surgeon. "It's getting worse as we have more and more features on these devices that we carry around with us that can distract us."
I wish they'd take a step back and let natural selection take its course.
At least reading Slashdot isn't dange^^&*((_-/... NO CARRIER
Since most of these distractions are probably smartphone related, and contemporary smartphones tend to have pretty substantial activity-logging capabilities and sensor packages, it would be technically feasible to get an 'aircraft blackbox' style snapshot of what was going on at the time of the injury.
Anyone know if you could get away with an insurance policy that demands such data, in the event of a claim, and then attempts to deny coverage for any costs deemed to have been incurred because of negligent distraction? Just think of how many claims you could deny with the right data...
I might just be tired, but it took me forever to figure out what a walking skyrocket is.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Glad I'm not the only one that couldn't understand this headline without reading it a couple of times.
"What the hell is a distracted walking skyrocket?"
In all seriousness, texting while doing something else has become a conspicuous problem. Probably not worse than all of the other “problems” that have occurred throughout history whenever a new technology arose, but nevertheless something we’re going to have to adapt to. Texting while driving seems insane, and speech-to-text doesn’t help a whole hell of a lot. Then again, some people seem to have trouble adjusting their radio settings without crashing.
The interesting thing about texting while walking is that making a law about it also seems absurd. You’re not operating heavy equipment, just mostly putting yourself at risk of tripping. And if you injure someone else, then there are already laws that address the liability there. A huge factor here comes down to the individual’s talents at multitasking and using peripheral vision. I know that I can text while walking because long before cell phones, I’d already developed good use of both multitasking and peripheral vision, so like many others I have observed, I can walk and text and manage to not trip on unexpected obstacles, bump into other people, walk in front of cars, etc.
However, lots of people are not good at this yet insist on doing it anyway. That being said, this isn’t a lot different from many other risky activities people engage in that we can’t and shouldn’t try to regulate, like excessive alcohol, weed, unprotected sex, and driving while stupid. We can only address the after-effects when people harm others as a result of acting irresponsibly.
You beat me to it. I just woke up and read that five or six times before my eyes met the summary. Talk about confused. At least it made me smile.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Talking about strange headlines, one of my country most read newspapers published the following headline: "Law and Justice: Two hands of the same arm"
About the Distracted Walking Skyrocket?
Or...
A Distracted Skyrocket walks into an emergency room and says to the intake nurse...
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
So you want a technological solution to solve a human-induced problem created by technology?
I guess using the 2 pounds of gray matter rattling around in one's skull is too obvious a solution.
Screw technology, let people maim or kill themselves. If they're too stupid to be aware of their surroundings, nature will take its course.
This is no different than our ancestors from tens of thousands of years ago who didn't keep an eye out for dangers around them. They were removed from the gene pool.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lovely Japanese take on the curse of distracted walking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Bump: 66% of people have run into others when using a smartphone while walking.
Fall: 3.6 % of people have fallen from a platform when texting while walking.
Trip: 18% of people have tripped when using a smartphone while walking.
99% of people think using a smartphone while walking is dangerous.
73% of people have used a smartphone while walking.
Please look forward when you are walking.
Using a smartphone while walking is dangerous.
Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
Natural selection.
Think of it as evolution in action.
Screw technology, let people maim or kill themselves.
That's fine when it's only them who get affected. Frequently it's not them we give a shit about, but the others that they injury either physically or psychologically in the process. A close friend of mine ran into someone who was distracted with his phone who stepped on to the cycling lane without looking. The guy started abusing my friend because his phone was knocked out of his hand and broken. But my friend didn't care because he was too busy being unconscious on the ground.
Similarly a friend of the family was a truck driver. Emphasis on the was part. He ran over and killed a young cyclist who was off with the fairies headphones blasting rock music and all and clearly didn't see a the red light. He can no longer drive. He's psychologically messed up even though the very short investigation concluded he was 0% at fault.
I'm all for Darwin awards but karma can sometimes be a slow and unfair bastard affecting innocent bystanders.
You beat me to it. I just woke up and read that five or six times before my eyes met the summary. Talk about confused. At least it made me smile.
Or someone in Star Wars epidose VII, which I haven't had a chance to see yet.
Those kids and their fads, yesterday it was that ice bucket challenge, today it's distracted walking skyrocket...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.