In the first 24 hours of launching our new Facebook page, we had over 4,000 people who viewed our page. 93% of those people visited our page from a mobile device. That is incredible insight into how much we are using our phones today to search for everything—from which movie to watch Friday night to which attorney is best suited for you.
Our phones offer a great deal of convenience and information. Soon, for residents in New Jersey, phones can also offer a great deal of strife. Walking while texting in New Jersey could soon get you a $50.00 fine or even 15 days in jail! A “distracted walking” law introduced by Pamela Lampitt would ban texting while walking and would require pedestrians to use a hands-free device. Similar bills in New York, Arkansas, Illinois, and Nevada have failed.
“An individual crossing the road distracted by their smartphone presents just as much danger to motorists as someone jaywalking and should be held, at minimum, to the same penalty,” Lampitt told the New York Post.
There are a ton of studies that you can find on the internet about the statistics of accidents, and even fatalities, from texting and walking. The common theme of all of those studies is that there has been a significant rise in accidents in recent years. But, is making such a common, and seemingly harmless, thing illegal the right answer? Go to our Facebook page and let us know your thoughts.