A road safety group in Australia is calling for stiff fines to be introduced for an increasingly common type of jaywalking. It's when pedestrians using cellphones step out into traffic so distracted that they're unaware of what they're doing.
The importance of paying attention while crossing the road has been highlighted in video released of a crash south of Sydney.
The dashcam video shows a woman crossing the street at a red light, staring at her phone and with headphones in. Disaster strikes when the lights turn green. While most of the cars wait for her to finish crossing, one approaches unable to see her.
She gets knocked down, both her feet run over while one of her legs twists awkwardly as she falls.
It could have been much worse if the woman, mesmerised by her phone, had been walking a little bit faster.
Experts say it was the "holy trinity" of poor pedestrian behaviour - the woman crossed on a flashing red light, wasn't looking where she was going and, with headphones in, couldn't hear anything.
Pedestrian Council's Harold Scruby says there need to be harsher penalties for jaywalkers.
"Using a handheld mobile device when crossing roads, we want a minimum penalty of $200 and we want council rangers to assist," he tells 7 News.
The Pedestrian Council is running a graphic campaign warning pedestrians to be careful while they're on the roads.
In it a woman, using her phone with headphones in, starts crossing the road. Just like what happened in real life, it doesn't work out well.
Newshub.
