You’ve seen this person. Maybe you’ve even been this person. We’re talking about someone shuffling along a sidewalk or through a shopping mall, so absorbed in the phone in their hands that they bump into people or dangerous object…boom! Not cool! Even almost get run over by a car… and that there is pretty bad! Though most texters are very good at avoiding obstacles, the bad news is that you would not want to be stuck behind them, especially if you were in a hurry.
This menace has got people worried especially residents of New Jersey. They’ve even (unsuccessfully) tried to pass laws. However, that isn’t stopping New Jersey assembly woman, Pamela Lampitt. She recently introduced a bill that would ban any hands-on use of electronic communication devices while walking on the state’s p
ublic pathways. Get caught and you’d face the same penalties as jaywalking, which could include up to a $50 fine and 15 days in jail! Yes, you heard that right! She says that you pose “just as much danger” as a jaywalker, since you may unwittingly smack into a car while you catch up with friends on Whatsapp. The bill isn’t coming out of nowhere: Lampitt mentioned an American National Safety Council report that documented 11,101 incidents over the space of 10 years, some of which included injuries.
However, the citizens of New Jersey are saying that turning this into an honest-to-goodness law may prove difficult. Police officers frequently have much higher priorities than stopping your Facebook Messenger session, and it may be difficult to enforce the legislation unless you do cause an incident. It might be easier to run ads encouraging people to stay focused than to drag offenders into court.
Do you think the text-walking problem is really this serious in Nigeria?