| From personal experience, one of the biggest frustrations of walking around the streets of any city these days are the PDA-crazed zombies zigzagging their way across the sidewalk madly banging away on their iPhones and Blackberries. They walk into buildings, stumble over sidewalk cracks, shoulder bump other zombies and, in general, become a menace to every other pedestrian trying to get around town.
I used to say that people are going to get hurt.
Well, according to an article on the front page of Friday’s Wall Street Journal, it’s happening.
So far, as the article notes, most of the damage has been done to texters themselves. The article quotes Dr. James Adams, Northwestern Memorial Hospital's chairman of emergency medicine, who says that every day in Chicago this summer he seen patients who’ve been hurt in texting-related accidents.
The problem is: What, if anything, can be done?
Yes, there are laws against people texting behind the wheel of a car, but I don’t see any legislation being passed that restricts what we do while walking down the block.
And, yes, there are other measures that can be taken. The article has someone recommending that cities put pads on streetlight poles. But I don’t see that happening either.
Maybe this is just a danger we’re going to have live with. What do you think?
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