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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."
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.
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.