Let’s Say ‘No’ to ‘Distracted Walking’ | Condolence Post
Our deepest condolences to the bereaved family members of Ms. Nikitha, from Kolkata, who was doing her First year Psychology in our College.
Words cannot express the shock at this sudden loss of such a lovely, young and vibrant kid in such a tragic manner.
This 19-year old student who was working part-time as a teacher, to make ends meet, was hit by a train while crossing the railway track at Irumbuliyur near Tambaram.
Eyewitnesses have said that, she was talking over the Phone. The Guruvayur Express plying towards the city ran over Nikitha who died on the spot, says a senior police officer.
Please let us all be extremely careful while using the cell phones while walking. This applies to all of us, teachers, students and other commuters as well.
A study conducted by the University of Birmingham found that –
Slow-crossing students with cell phones were up to 43% more likely to be hit by a vehicle while crossing the street; and
Students using cell phones took up to 20% longer to cross the street than children who were not using a cell phone; and
Children looked both ways 20% fewer times when crossing the street while using cell phones.
Studies done in several other countries have shown that distracted walking is a hazard!
Research conducted in both Japan and England show similar increases in this trend. An experiment was conducted in London’s busy Brick Lane area which was identified as the top spot for London’s 68,000 texting accidents in 2007.
Lampposts and other obstructions were wrapped and padded to minimize injury to pedestrians who texted and talked on cell phones as they walked.
Cameras were installed to capture pictures of people running into these obstructions and record incident frequency.
In California and Texas, campaigns warning pedestrians to be focused on their safety when walking have emerged.
San Francisco adopted a huge media blitz warning walkers about the dangers of headphones while walking.
One of the ads asks “Do you want Beethoven to be the last thing you hear?”
Keeping in touch is important, but it is more important to be alive to get the message.
On an aside, I so vividly recollect an accident that had happened just in front of the Indian Bank near Captain’s Corner, [Adjacent to Air Force Road, Tambaram East].
This accident happened almost 12 years ago, and Dr. Annet Pearl (presently our Dean of Student Affairs) and myself, were the only faculty members who witnessed the accident first-hand, which happened right in front of our eyes.
The boy, a B.Com student of our College was talking to someone on his mobile, while riding very fast on that stretch, when he was hit by a lorry, and he was killed on the spot. The sad thing was, the person on the other side who didn’t know that he was thrown off his bike and had died, was still on the call, asking ‘Hello, are you there’…
Bystanders had to tell her that the rider had passed away in the accident. I can also imagine how much the girl on the other side of the call would have been traumatized to hear that it was because of her conversation with him while he was on the move, that could have resulted in his death!
Please! Let’s all walk, with our eyes wired to the roads on all sides! Not wired to our mobiles, atleast while walking! Rehashing the ad to say, “Do you want Ilayaraja or A.R.Rahman to be the last thing you hear?”
And this little message is for you and me and we – all of us who are equally prone to be distracted by our cellphones while walking!
We shall all take a resolve tonight! Shall we?
That resolve would be, 'No to distracted walking!'
Statistics Sourced from: https://www.ocwr.gov/
Newspaper Snapshot: The New Indian Express, Today's Chennai City Edition
Photo Courtesy: DTNext, City Edition
