If you’re walking in public – pull over to check your phone. The dangers of distracted walking...

It may be hard to resist checking your phone on the go – but it could land you in the hospital...

A recent study on a busy intersection in Seattle found that 30% of walkers were paying more attention to their phones than to where they were going. Experts say these pedestrian surfers are four times more at risk than the rest of us. They are more likely to jaywalk, ignore traffic lights and less likely to look both ways. They also took about two seconds longer to make it across the street. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of pedestrians injured or killed in traffic accidents has quadrupled in the last seven years – and phone checking is a big factor. Dr. Rober Glatter, an emergency room physician at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital, says they treat several patients a week with injuries such as facial fractures, eye injuries, blunt head trauma and nasal fractures due to distracted walking.