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Do you walk and talk?

Camps that forbid the use of cell phones, Internet and iPods are often a difficult adjustment for youngsters and parents. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com(509) 319-0354
Camps that forbid the use of cell phones, Internet and iPods are often a difficult adjustment for youngsters and parents. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Camps that forbid the use of cell phones, Internet and iPods are often a difficult adjustment for youngsters and parents. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Apparently that’s dangerous:

SAN FRANCISCO - On the day of the collision last December, visibility was good. The sidewalk was not under repair. As she walked, Tiffany Briggs, 25, was talking to her grandmother on her cellphone, lost in conversation.

Very lost.

“I ran into a truck,’’ Briggs said.

It was parked in a driveway.

Distracted driving has gained much attention lately because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cellphones to talk and text.

But there is another growing problem caused by lower-stakes multitasking - distracted walking - which combines a pedestrian, an electronic device, and an unseen crack in the sidewalk, the pole of a stop sign, a toy left on the living room floor, or a parked (or sometimes moving) car. Read more.

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog