Walking While Texting

Just as The New York Times recently reported that cellphone manufacturers pushed the convenience of driving while dialing even as they knew of its dangers, surely someday history will laugh a bitter little laugh at the thought that anyone would manufacture an application to improve the safety of walking while texting, or Texthook, a new device that makes it easier to text while pushing a stroller. This summer, the American College of Emergency Room Physicians released a statement expressing concern about the issue, citing a Chicago doctor who was seeing a lot of face, chin, eye and mouth injuries among young people who reported texting and tumbling. At Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, Marc Felberbaum, an emergency room doctor, said he had been seeing more of this over the past year. He recalled in particular one patient who had tripped on a curb while texting, not only breaking his wrist but losing grasp of his cellphone, whereupon it was crushed by an oncoming car. (And yes, it was with some satisfaction that the doctor recounted the last part of this cautionary tale.)