By Rebecca Baillie
Doctors and police have raised concerns about the number of pedestrians being hit by vehicles while distracted by their mobile devices.
Trauma director at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Dr Tony Grabs, has told 7.30 distracted pedestrians near roads are as at risk as someone under the influence of alcohol.
He said as winter sets in and more people are out and about in poor light, he is expecting the number of injured pedestrians to rise.
“You only have to walk out on the street and see what people are doing to see that this is a real problem,” Dr Grabs said.
“People need to be aware of the risk – it only takes a split second to be hit by a car.
“It is just like having alcohol on board, you don’t realise what is going on around you, so the phone is almost like a drug.”
One young student, Ibrahim, a Saudi Arabian national who is studying English in Sydney, knows just how dangerous being zoned out can be.
He was hit by a bus which was travelling at 40 kilometres an hour in Sydney’s busy CBD. The impact was so hard, his head smashed the windscreen.
“I was listening to music and walking. I stepped out on the street wearing headphones. After that – accident,” he said.
“Maybe if I didn’t have the headphones I would have seen the bus.”
Fortunately Ibrahim only sustained bruises and no significant damage to his head in the accident.
Dr Grabs, who treated Ibrahim in hospital, said he was extremely lucky with pedestrians focussed wearing headphones, texting or talking risking a serious injury.
“When people get hit by a car it is not a minor injury, you can injure your legs, you can injure your pelvic bones, you can injure your head,” he said.
“When you get hit by a larger vehicle such as a bus, sometimes people don’t survive.”
Call to penalise distracted pedestrians
Police say it is hard to quantify the exact number of pedestrian accidents where a mobile device may have been a causal factor because this sort of information is not automatically recorded at the accident scene.
However, NSW Police’s Traffic and Highway Command’s Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith has warned pedestrians to stay alert.
“We have certainly got gaps in the way data is collected in crash investigations,” he said.
“If you step on the roadway with your mobile phone in your ear, it only takes 30 kilometres an hour by a vehicle, truck or other vehicle on the roadway to make it fatal.”
Pedestrian Council of Australia spokesman Harold Scruby wants to see laws changed to make it an offence not to cross the road safely.
“If you are wearing noise cancelling headphones, or ear buds, you can’t hear someone yell ‘watch out’ or a siren or a horn. You are in la-la land,” he said.
“It is illegal to drive and text while using a mobile phone, but it is not directly illegal to cross the road while using one of these devices. The only thing the police could get you for is obstructing traffic, or crossing against the green light.”