William Paterson Study Finds Distracted Walking with Electronic Devices Poses 'Significant Risk of Injury'

A new study by William Paterson University public health professor Dr. Corey Basch found that distracted walking caused by walking while using electronic devices presents a significant risk of injury.

For the study, titled “Pedestrian Behavior at Five Dangerous and Busy Manhattan Intersections,” Basch studied more than 21,000 pedestrians at the five intersections “and discovered that nearly half crossing on a ’Don’t Walk’ signal and nearly one-third of pedestrians crossing on a ’Walk’ signal were wearing headphones, talking on a mobile phone, and/or looking down at an electronic device,” a press release stated.

The most prevalent distracted behavior, according to Dr. Basch, was headphone use, which impaired the “ability to register important audible warnings.”

“It came as a surprise that there were so many pedestrians distracted by technology during the walk signal, but the fact that they were even more distracted by technology crossing on a ‘don’t walk’ signal is astonishing,” said Basch. “It’s clearly a public health concern given that these intersections are incredibly busy and have been singled out as being dangerous.”

In 2010, more than 4,000 pedestrians were killed and another 70,000 were injured in traffic crashes in the U.S., the press release stated.

“Pedestrian Behavior at Five Dangerous and Busy Manhattan Intersections” was recently published in The Journal of Community Health.