Distracted driving has gained much notoriety lately because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cellphones to talk and text. However, there is another growing problem caused by lower-stakes multitasking; distracted walking. Distracted walking combines a pedestrian, an electronic device and an unseen crack in the sidewalk, the pole of a stop sign and sometimes a moving car or train.
 Doctors and safety experts are becoming increasingly concerned about the risk associated with distraction while walking. In the USA, a study done by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, published in the journal Injury Prevention, said the number of fatal accidents involving pedestrians wearing headphones or earbuds has tripled in recent years. Further, researchers claim that hearing can be more important that seeing, especially when the vast majority of victims were hit by trains and vehicles with blaring horns prior to the incidents.
Researchers say there are two problems that cause people wearing headphones to be completely oblivious to what is happening in their surroundings. One is called inattentional blindness where the brain is too busy operating or listing to an iPod or MP3 player to pay close attention to the potential dangers around them such as traffic. The other problem is called environmental isolation where the noise coming through the headphones overpowers the sounds from the streets. You are literally 'plugging' out the warning signs from traffic by wearing headphones.
Closer to home, in Calgary, there is more than one pedestrian accident every single day on average; a total of 499 in 2010 and 312 to end of October 2011. This past December, two pedestrians incidents occurred involving C-trains. Both incident videos could not conclusively rule out unintentional blindness because of the use of a mobile device. Due to these two recent incidents, transit officials are asking people to take responsibility for their own well-being and surroundings. Currently, additional research and improved data are needed in Canada to determine the impact of distracted walking as the issue is difficult to quantify. Although hospital statistics show that injuries are being reported, researchers suspect that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the injuries may not be reported because they are minor and do not require medical treatment, or people are too embarrassed to seek treatment.
So, the questions are: Do we need distracted walking legislation? More signal at crosswalks? Is there anything that will convince people to watch where they're walking? Technological advances and engineered controls including flashing lights, whistles, signs and booms may improve our chances for not getting into an incident, however, the statistics are not diminished due to these factors. People must acknowledge their personal responsibility to ensure that they are aware of their surroundings to take precautions around traffic, trains and on sidewalks.
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