Put Down The Phone When You're Walking!

You don’t have to be behind the wheel to risk your life and the lives of others while texting, texting while walking down the street can be deadly. A new study reports that a growing number of people who walk while talking or texting are ending up in the emergency room.

At the root of the problem is the fact that at a cognitive level, there's a lot more work involved in maintaining a cell phone call than you might think. In 2011, one research group reported that pedestrians on their mobile phones used as much brain power as people engaged in a somewhat complex spatial task. People in a crosswalk simulator reached the other side more quickly while doing a math problem, for instance, than while conversing on a cell phone.

US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is responding to the increase in deaths by combating “distracted walking,” which he describes as walking while texting, listening to music, or under the influence. Foxx’s efforts join one of America’s top cellular service providers, AT&T, and famed German filmmaker Werner Herzog., the film is called "From One Second to the Next,"