Students Reminded About the Dangers of Texting While in Motion

By Connie LeGrand
Anchor
Published: August 11, 2008

    As many students prepare to head back-to-class, physicians and safety experts are warning them to keep their chins up and their cell phones stashed.  Emergency rooms around the country are seeing more accidents involving texting and other activities like walking, biking or skating.
    Sixteen-year-old Michael Lattimore loves to text, but he’s not allowed to do it while driving or while’s he’s in class; but once school is out for the day, “We’re allowed to text out of school like on school grounds - outside in the parking lot.“  We all know how chaotic a school parking lot can be with kids looking down and cars on the move.
    Many of the text related injuries being reported are the result of texting and tripping.  Teri Mitchell of Safe Kids Upstate says, “It’s really best to tell kids, when you are texting, you know, devote your attention to texting.  Go to a safe place and do it, rather than trying to operate a vehicle or a bike or walking.“
    Michael’s mom makes it clear - when he is on the move by bike, motorcycle or car, is cell phone is immobile.  According to Jackie Lattimore, “His cell phone stays locked in his trunk until he stops the car. If he gets caught texting or talking on the cell phone, his license will be taken away for at least a month.“  She leads by example, and believes other parents should too!  “He does not see me do those kinds of things, “ says Lattimore.
    Area hospitals say there is knowing exactly how many accidents involve people who were texting when an accident happened, because they aren’t classifying them that way yet; but several of the fatalities which have occurred in other states, involved someone texting and stepping out into the path of a car or some type of machinery. 
    Meanwhile, they are experimenting with the idea of padded lampposts in London, so that people bump into them – they wont’ get hurt.

From American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) :

Emergency Physicians Express Safety Concerns
Over Text Messaging as Kids Go Back to School
‘Plain old common sense’ advised; don’t text while walking, driving, rollerblading
Washington, D.C. — The nation’s youngsters will soon be headed back to school and making new friends in new classes, as well as catching up with old buddies – activities that these days typically spark a flurry of text-messaging, especially among teens and young adults. But the nation’s emergency physicians say they are seeing a dangerous trend that can go hand-in-hand with texting: a rise in injuries and deaths related to sending text messages at inappropriate times, such as while walking, driving, biking or rollerblading.
“It’s tragic,” said Dr. Linda Lawrence, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), who noted that her colleagues across the country are anecdotally reporting cases, “among teens and young adults, in particular, who are arriving in emergency departments with serious and sometimes fatal injuries because they were not paying attention while texting.”
“We see this every day, since we are [in] downtown Chicago, with lots of people walking around,” said
Dr. James Adams, MD, professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. “People are texting and they trip and fall on their faces – usually people in their 20s. We see a lot of face, chin, mouth [and] eye injuries from falls.”
Even worse, said Dr. Adams, are the injuries that result from people texting and causing collisions with bikers, rollerbladers and others.
“Some [people] are actually on [Chicago’s busy] lakefront path texting while walking or exercising,” said Dr. Adams.  “We see people rollerblading or biking while texting. They are usually very skilled but sometimes crash and fall when they are not watching where they are going.”
While many of these injuries turn out to be relatively minor, others are more deadly.
“In March, [we] were driving and saw a woman in her twenties step off the curb and get struck square by a pickup truck,” said Dr. Matthew Lewin, MD, PhD, an emergency physician at University of California San Francisco Hospital in San Francisco. “She was unconscious and it appeared she’d suffered a massive brain injury. You could tell she saw the truck at the last moment because her cell phone was dropped right where she was struck just off the curb, and she was thrown about 20 or 30 feet.. It was horrifying. The truck stopped. The driver was devastated. I was amazed to hear she survived all the way to trauma center but died [in] the ER.”
Of course, it’s not the just young who are vulnerable to cell-phone-related injuries. Dr. Paul Walsh, an emergency physician in Bakersfield, Calif., reported treating a man in his 50s who was talking on the phone to his wife. “He was distracted and was killed as he crossed the road.
“This issue is real,” said Dr. Walsh. “In Ireland, the government developed advertising specifically targeted at teens for this very reason.”

Because of the inevitable distractions and subsequent dangers related to texting and the use of other electronic devices such as Ipods, Dr. Lawrence advised the following common-sense safety measures:
• Don’t text or use a cell phone while engaged in any physical activities that require sustained attention; such activities include walking, biking, boating, rollerblading or even intermittent-contact sports such as baseball, football or soccer.
• Never text or use a hand-held cell phone while driving or motorcycling, and use caution even with headsets.
• Avoid becoming distracted by rummaging through purses, backpacks or clothing by keeping cell phones and blackberries in easy-to-find locations, such as phone pockets or pouches.
• Ignore the call or message if it might interfere with concentration during critical activities that require attention. Better yet, turn off the device beforehand during times when incoming calls or messages might prove to be a dangerous or even simply embarrassing or annoying interference.
• Be mindful of the distraction and corresponding reflex-response delay that texting can cause, and don’t text in any environments in which excessive inattention can cause safety concerns, such as while sitting alone at night, waiting for a bus, or in a crowded area, where one could easily become a victim of a personal theft.

“The bottom line is to be aware of potential safety concerns and to simply exercise caution, restraint and good judgment at all times when using a cell phone or blackberry,” said Dr. Lawrence.

ACEP is a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine with more than 26,000 members. ACEP is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research and public education. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ACEP has 53 chapters representing each state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A Government Services Chapter represents emergency physicians employed by military branches and other government agencies.
                                #  #  #

Cindy Price
Public Relations Manager
Public Affairs Division
American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)
2121 K Street, NW - Suite 325
Washington, DC 20037
Phone:  202-728-0610, ext. 3005
Fax:  202-728-0617
mailto:cmprice@acep.org
http://www.acep.org