Texting while walking can be dangerous

Texting while walking can be dangerous. | KIKA TRIAY

Peter CloverPalma 07/03/2025 10:12
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As much as I’m a massive fan of mobile phones, I have started to look at them as potentially dangerous weapons! Well, not the phones themselves, but the direct consequence of using them in certain situations, specifically when crossing the road! I have lost count of people who have randomly stepped off the pavement directly in-front of my car, with heads buried in their mobile phones. Eyes transfixed to their hypnotic screens they stride across the road, often launching themselves from zebra crossings without as much as a preliminary glance! Even the slamming of brakes or the screeching sound of tyres fails to distract from their all-consuming ‘texting’!

It’s a dangerous occupation . . . mainly, yet not definitively, with the younger generation . . . who also play video games as they bump blindly into everyone in their wake, with no consequence or regard whatsoever for anyone else in their immediate path!

Recently, Other Half had two surgical procedures affecting both sides of the body; shoulder and arm in case you were wondering! A simple walk along any pavement suddenly became a veritable nightmare, with preoccupied phone users constantly colliding, with no concern for causing either pain, distress or injury. Their only concern being the loss of a point or two on their challenging game score, or a glitch in their messaging transcript!

Texting on the go is something we all do from time to time, but PLEASE be aware of your surroundings along with others in your speeding trajectory. I have even seen a phone-user so busily ensconced in texting that they blindly tripped over a fountain and ended up head first in the ‘pond’.

Also, it’s massively reported that ‘heads-down’ phone users are easy victims, and open targets, feeding the current trend of criminal phone snatchers who prey on such oblivious individuals.
No text or video game is that important that it precipitates a visit to casualty or threatens your wellbeing or welfare. Take note when you’re out and about . . . HEADS UP AND LOOK WHERE YOU’RE GOING!!!