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Vehicle-pedestrian accidents injure 60,000 and kill 4,000 people every year in this country. Researchers watching1,102 Seattle pedestrians at 20 high-risk intersections during randomly assigned times found that nearly one in three people crossing the street at high-risk intersections was distracted by use of a mobile device. Only one in four followed the full safety routine of looking both ways, obeying the lights, and crossing at the appropriate point, the study found. Texting was particularly dangerous as texting pedestrians were 3.9 times more likely than undistracted pedestrians to display at least 1 unsafe crossing behavior (disobeying the lights, crossing mid-intersection, or failing to look both ways).  People texting also spent more time in the intersection, by 1.87 seconds, or 18%.

FocusDriven – Advocates for Cell-Free Driving – thinks so, recently calling for automatic license revocation for drivers who text behind the wheel stating texting is a dangerous and deadly behavior that takes drivers' mind off the road, hands off the steering wheel and eyes off the road.  In New York, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo marked the one year anniversary of the state's strict law to prevent distracted driving by announcing this past July that law enforcement officials issued more than 20,000 tickets to motorists for texting-while-driving violations since the law took effect on July 12, 2011, four times as many than the previous year during which New York law enforcement officials issued 4,569 tickets for texting-while-driving violations.

A study by Newsday of pedestrian accidents reports from 2005 through 2010 published in today’s paper finds that pedestrians are killed an average of more than five times a year on Hempstead Turnpike’s 16 miles through Nassau County, making it Long Island’s most dangerous road.  Thirty-two people were killed and at least 427 injured in 457 pedestrian accidents.  Three more people have died since last July.  Even crossing at intersections is not safe.  More than half of the incidents examined occurred at intersections.  Pedestrians were struck far more often by drivers turning left than turning right.  Seventy percent of the pedestrians killed were not at intersections.