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Showing posts with label distracted walkers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label distracted walkers. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Textual Despondency

No, this is NOT an April fool's joke. Texting is a major problem and a major distraction from the focus of work. Even if occurring within the scope of employment, it is still a major factor in concentration and is therefore a safety concern. Today's guest post is from David Paolo.

This condition reportedly has been a "world wide health concern" since around 2011 when conditions associated with excessive cell phone usage for texting and other mobile communications activities other than a phone call were starting to be identified.

A couple of weeks ago I was in San Francisco for the California Workers' Compensation Institute's annual meeting.

San Francisco must be the leading city where this "condition" could be studied. I was astounded at how many people walk around that town with their necks bent towards the ground, small devices in hand, paying zero attention to where they are, where they're going, or anyone or anything around them.

The number of people with zero spatial orientation or situational awareness as a result of profound hand-held device distraction was amazing to me.

Even in the elevator of the hotel where normally cellular signals aren't strong, if existent at all, a couple of gentlemen occupied the car as I got on heading to upper floors; they both were completely immersed in their devices. They did not look up, acknowledge my presence in any way or even acknowledge each other.

We got to the seventh floor and, without even a short little glance above the screen in his hand held one fellow starts toward the open doors and says, I presume to the other guy in the elevator, "see you at dinner."

The other guy, likewise, did not take his stare off the screen of his hand held device, thumb busy scrambling...
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Related articles:
Nov 03, 2013
Lost in the clamor for stricter distracted-driving laws, a study from April 2013 found discouraging patterns in the relationship between texting bans and traffic fatalities. As one might expect, single occupant vehicle crashes dip ...
Oct 23, 2013
... drive on the roads. While the Federal government has strictly enforced the no texting while driving rule, the states maintain a patchwork of confusing regulations and statutory prohibitions. Today's post is shared from nj.com.
Oct 01, 2013
Andrew M. Cuomo revealed a plan to put "texting zones" on the New York State Thruway and state highways, where drivers can pull over and respond to text messages. This is, in part, a response to the fact that New York has ...
Aug 30, 2013
who is texting from a location remote from the driver of a motor vehicle can be liable to persons injured because the driver was distracted by the text. We hold that the sender of a text message can potentially be liable if an ...

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Distracted Walkers Are a Workplace Hazard

Over the last 2 days I watched at least a half-a-dozen people walking in the streets with a cellphone in their hands, and totally ignoring all traffic signals and vehicles around them. We are too quick to blame workers for causing all accidents through the use of cellphones.  Pedestrians on many occasions ignore all reason and logic, and walk in front of vehicles oblivious to the world.

Read: Distracted Walking: Injuries Soar for Pedestrians on Phones 

Cell Phone Use Not Just Dangerous for Drivers, Study Finds

"More than 1,500 pedestrians were estimated to be treated in emergency rooms in 2010 for injuries related to using a cell phone while walking, according to a new nationwide study."