A New Jersey politician is sponsoring a bill that would make walking and texting at the same time a criminal offense punishable by up to 15 days in jail or a $50 ticket.

Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt is pushing the measure, which would make the act of walking and texting akin to jaywalking.

Goal to Heighten Awareness

"It's to heighten the awareness of what's going on around you," Lampitt told the Mahawah Patch. "Even if you have permission to walk, you should not be distracted, you should be aware of what's going on around you, especially in the street."

To further bolster her position, Lampitt points to a recent study by William Patterson University health professor Dr. Corey Basch that found that distracted walking caused by walking while using electronic devices presents a significant risk of injury.

The "Pedestrian Behavior at Five Dangerous and Busy Manhattan Intersections" entitled study also noted that of the 21,000 cases examined during research nearly half of the injured pedestrians crossing on a "Don't Walk" signal and nearly one-third of those crossing on a "Walk" signal were wearing headphones, talking on a mobile phone, and/or looking down at an electronic device at the time of the accident.

"It came as a surprise that there were so many pedestrians distracted by technology during the walk signal, but the fact that they were even more distracted by technology crossing on a 'don't walk' signal is astonishing," Basch noted back then. "It's clearly a public health concern given that these intersections are incredibly busy and have been singled out as being dangerous."

Pols Motivations Partly Personal

According to Lampitt, her motivations for enacting the legislation are also motivated by a personal tragedy.

She also works at the University of Pennsylvania and recalls she knew a student who was killed after being hit by a bus as he crossed the street while using his cell phone. In 2010 alone, more than 4,000 pedestrians were killed and another 70,000 were injured in traffic crashes across the U.S.

"We need to have people be more aware of what's going on around them," said Lampitt.

Basch noted the most prevalent form of distracted behavior was headphone use, which he concluded impaired the user's "ability to register important audible warnings."

In addition, Pew Charitable Trusts at least partly attributed up to 10 percent of all the 78,000 pedestrian injuries across the country in 2012 to people using mobile devices at the time of the accidents.

The 55-year-old Lampitt of Cherry Hill is a veteran politician who has also worked on such committees as Women and Children, Financial Institutions and Insurance, Joint Committee on Economic Justice and Equal Employment Opportunities and Appropriations.

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