Pedestrian phone use on rise, poll finds
SEATTLE — Walkers, listen up: You, too, need to put down your phone while strolling.
Polls have shown we are walking while distracted more than ever. Last year, nearly 6,000 pedestrians in the U.S. were killed in collisions, about 20 per cent more pedestrian fatalities than in 2014, according to a study by the Governors Highway Safety Association.
More than half the 1,200 respondents polled recently by Seattle-based PEMCO Insurance in Washington and Oregon admit using their phones to talk, text or read while on foot.
Why is this important? Well, who has the most to lose in a collision between car and walker? That’s right — the walker.
The practice is so hard to relinquish that in a poll PEMCO did last year, two-thirds of parents with children at home and more than 50 per cent of all drivers who were asked admitted to illegally using their phones while driving though they know it’s wrong.
“They say they don’t think the distraction is too dangerous and they don’t believe they will be caught,” Wing said.
PEMCO’s Derek Wing said it’s worth noting that the June poll showed only 39 per cent of the multitasking walkers believe they are distracted, while nine out of 10 drivers report seeing walkers who are not paying attention to what’s going on around them.
“The disconnect happens when people who are walking say they’re not really distracted and drivers say: ‘Yeah, you are,’ ” he said. “There’s been a dramatic increase in pedestrian injuries and deaths in recent years, and one of the things I say is it’s everybody’s responsibility to be safe.”
It’s the second year in a row for unprecedented increases in pedestrian fatalities in the U.S., which is both “sad and alarming,” said Richard Retting of Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants, author of the Governors Highway Safety Association report.