1 in 3 walkers take selfies on roads: Study

Mumbai: A recent survey by a mobile company has revealed that one in three pedestrians tend to take selfies on busy roads and intersections, putting not only themselves at risk but motorists too.

The survey was based on face-to-face interviews conducted with 1,341 respondents aged between 15 and 60 (54 per cent male, 46 per cent female) in the Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kochi, Mumbai, Patna and Pune.

In fact, 64 per cent of the pedestrians said they normally answer the phone while crossing a road, while an alarming 18 per cent said they would immediately respond to a call from their superior at work, even if crossing a road.

The survey identifies 60 per cent of Indians using the two-wheeler have said that they instinctively answer their mobile phones when driving, while 14 per cent of Indian pedestrians admitted to taking selfies while crossing the road.

The survey also said that one-in-three car drivers tend to send a text message from behind the wheel if it were ‘important’.

Road safety expert Yogesh Ambe said, “The problem is that the use of technology has grown in India but we don’t have stringent rules to counter this growing menace.” He further added, “For example, there are some helmets sold where there an inbuilt speak like a Bluetooth device through which a person can pick up the call while driving, the problem is that if your distracted it hampers your reflexes and in an untoward situation you do not have the presence of mind to respond quickly.”

According to the survey, 11 per cent of two-wheeler riders would always answer their phone when on the road, regardless of who was calling, 30 percent would respond to calls from family while 18 percent of the riders responded to work-related calls.

Another road safety expert Vendant Goyal said that other countries like Vietnam where there is huge number of two-wheelers than normal has brought a policy change that anyone plugged into the phone via the earphones will be fined, he said “The Vietnamese government at first asked the motorist to use earphones but then saw that the accidents in which the main cause was technology didn’t reduce, after which they implemented a blanket ban on talking over the phone while driving.”

Among respondents, 80 per cent say they are ‘very concerned’ about the number of children they have seen crossing the road while on the phone, while 68 per cent admitted to seeing truck and bus drivers using their phones while behind the wheel.