Oblivious Thumb Typers Hit Walls, Lose Face;
'walk with ur chin @ about 45 degree angle'
Mike Munoz was simultaneously tapping out a text message and walking to the beer keg at a recent wedding when he smacked right into the bride. She teetered perilously as other guests rushed over to steady her.
"Who would miss someone wearing a white dress and an 8-foot train?" mutters Mr. Munoz, a 44-year-old car-dealership manager in suburban Portland, Ore. "She didn't get hurt or tear her dress, and I didn't get kicked out of the wedding for almost killing the bride."
Contestants, ranging in age from 14 to 28, battled in New York City to see who would be this year's LG National Texting Champion. WSJ's Michelle Kung reports. (July 10)
A growing group of multitaskers are texting on the go, trying to manipulate the small keypads of a mobile phone or personal digital assistant while ambulatory. They obliviously ram into walls and doorways or fall down stairs. Out on the streets, they bump into lampposts, parked cars, garbage cans and other stationary objects.
Texting-on-the-go is just the latest tech-created public nuisance, one that's spreading quickly across a world still grappling with cellphone-addled drivers and wireless-headset users who appear to be speaking too loudly to no one in particular. Like driving cellphone users, mobile texters typing furiously into their cellphones, BlackBerry devices or iPhones can be safety hazards.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, several high-profile accidents may have had a role in prompting states such as New Jersey and Washington to outlaw texting while driving. Among the accidents the group cited: a cyclist killed by a texting teen driver in 2005.
But most of the time the victims are the texters, who wind up with bumps and bruises. Northwestern Memorial Hospital's emergency room has been ground zero in Chicago for texting goofs. Located downtown near shopper-clogged Michigan Avenue, the emergency room is also close to the exceptionally busy lakefront path, where pedestrians and joggers share a lane with bikers.
James Adams, Northwestern's chairman of emergency medicine, says he has treated patients involved in texting incidents nearly every day this summer. He says fallen texters are more prone to facial injuries: They tend to hold their devices close to their faces, so their hands are less likely to break their fall. "By the time their hands hit, their face immediately hits and they smash to the ground," Dr. Adams says. The common outcomes are scraped chins, noses and foreheads, along with broken glasses.
Padded Lampposts
Some mobile texters have developed safety strategies. "Sometimes I stick my hand out while I'm walking and texting," says Cate Kim, a 24-year old program director for a Boys & Girls Clubs of America chapter, in an email. "You know, just to avoid a nasty spill even if I end up touching a stranger." The Huntington Beach., Calif., resident says texting-on-the-go has led her to ruin high heels, whack walls and trip on a stairwell. Last winter, Ms. Kim says, she tumbled to the ground in downtown Chicago, taking a few passersby with her, all while texting on her BlackBerry Pearl.
On an online Internet forum called crackberry.com, Blackberry users trade tips about how to expertly navigate busy streets while texting. "U gotta walk with ur chin @ about 45 degree angle, n u won't bump into nothing," reads one post from a user named JBEL. "Trust me it works." In London, directory-services company 118 118, operated by The Number UK Ltd., began a publicity campaign in March, outfitting lampposts with padded bumpers in the East End to cut down on injuries to errant texters.
The extra padding wouldn't have helped Jill Duckstein, a physical therapist from Florida who was vacationing in London in March. Texting with a friend on her BlackBerry Pearl, she fell off a curb into a construction barricade, "on my bum as they say, and feet in the air," according to Ms. Duckstein. She wasn't seriously injured.
Perhaps the most common blow felt by fallen texters is to their egos. One executive at a large management-consulting firm in New York says he was in midtown Manhattan, typing on his BlackBerry, when he walked smack into the end of a two-by-four board being toted on the shoulder of a construction worker. The executive was left with a red spot on his forehead that he managed to avoid having to explain to colleagues before it went away. Like many battle-scarred texters, the executive says he's too embarrassed about the incident to be identified.
Walking the Dog
Despite the obvious hazards to person and pride, many mobile texters show little sign of giving up their potentially perilous practice. Bryan Fuhr was walking his dog, Ezra, in Manhattan last summer when he decided to send a text message from his iPhone. He looped the end of Ezra's leash around his arm and tapped away, stepping into the road between two parked cars -- and straight into the path of a biker. The biker ran over his foot and knocked him to the ground, spooking his dog, who tore off down the street. Ezra returned, but Mr. Fuhr was left with bruises, scrapes and two broken toes.
"I would not say that I learned a lesson, no," says Mr. Fuhr, a 36-year old strategy director at an Internet marketing agency. He says he still frequently texts while walking his dog. "I want to be in touch when I want to be in touch."
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