Researchers have warned that texting while walking is more likely to cause an accident than taking a call or listening to music.
A new study discovered that texting was more dangerous for pedestrians than listening to music or talking on the phone. The researchers found that texting had a higher rate of near misses and a failure to look left and right when crossing the road.
Comparatively, talking on the phone was linked to a slight increase in time taken to cross a road safely while listening to music had no notable impact on pedestrian safety.
The researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada pointed out that their findings need further investigation as "pedestrian distraction" is an increasing problem in towns and cities around the world.
The study authors said: "Given the ubiquity of smartphones, social media, apps, digital video and streaming music, which has infiltrated most aspects of daily life, distracted walking and street crossing will be a road safety issue for the foreseeable future."
The study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, revealed that approximately 270,000 pedestrians die on an annual basis around the world, comprising about a fifth of all road traffic deaths.
The authors recommend further studies as they posed several questions regarding their findings. They asked: "Do groups or packs of pedestrians shield those among them who are distracted or do groups assume that other group members are paying attention?"
"Are children and teens more at risk while distracted? Are elderly pedestrians who are distracted and slower more prone to conflicts with vehicles?" the researchers added.
The US-based National Safety Council found 2,841 people died in distraction-affected crashes in 2018 in the US while the Governors Highway Safety Association estimated taht there were more than 6,000 pedestrian deaths in 2018, the highest number in more than 20 years.
