Doctors warn of the perils of texting while on the move

Giancarlo Yerkes safely crossed a street in Chicago while texting. ER doctors cite rising injuries by texting pedestrians. (M. Spencer Green/ Associated Press)

CHICAGO - The warning came too late for an adviser to Barack Obama: Don't walk and write text messages at the same time.

Obama aide Valerie Jarrett fell off a Chicago curb several weeks ago while her thumbs were flying on her Blackberry.

"I didn't see the sidewalk and I twisted my ankle," Jarrett said. "It was a nice wake-up call for me to be a lot more careful in the future, because I clearly wasn't paying attention and I should have."

Jarrett got off easy and didn't need medical attention.

But in an alert issued this week, the American College of Emergency Physicians warns of the danger of more serious accidents involving oblivious texters. The emergency room doctors cite rising reports from doctors around the country of injuries involving text-messaging pedestrians, bicyclists, Rollerbladers, even motorists.

Most involve scrapes, cuts, and sprains from texters who walked into lampposts or walls, or tripped over curbs.

ER doctors who responded to an informal survey from the group reported two deaths, both in California. A San Francisco woman was killed earlier this year when she was hit by a pickup truck as she stepped off a curb while texting, and a Bakersfield man was struck by a car and killed while crossing the street and texting.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has no national estimate on how common texting-related injuries are. But among the reports it has received: A 15-year-old girl fell off her horse while texting, suffering head and back injuries, and a 13-year-old girl suffered belly, leg, and arm burns after texting her boyfriend while cooking noodles.