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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Lamposts in London are padded to protect texters that bump into them (http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/features/local_story_206150826.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/distracted_driving.jpgKelly Kazek - SANMARCOSRECORD (http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com) - July 25, 2009

Not much sympathy for those that fall into the abyss --Ed.

...In Staten Island, N.Y., the sewer department leaves off manhole covers so teenage girls who are walking and texting will fall straight — bloop — into untreated sewage.

The workers who caused this debacle last week said they stepped away for two seconds to get orange cones to mark the site to warn pedestrians.

I’m betting the guys who pulled the girl out of the muck put on gas masks really fast, partly because of the smell but mostly because if that girl’s dad saw how hard they were laughing, they’d be dead meat.... http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/features/local_story_206150826.html

When I first heard about texting, I thought it was way overpriced. Now I think it's way too cheap.

A funny video that pertains to this site could involve Jean Ma standing in the middle of the road texting, then a Prius stops next to her. After a few seconds, the driver honks the horn because Jean Ma didn't notice the Prius, causing her to run right into a manhole. To make it even funnier, instead of falling all the way through, she fits in the top of the manhole like a cork in a bottleneck.

I was thinking an open manhole cover in the middle of the cross walk. All the drivers are texting and the ped is texting. Ped falls half in (like you said), low enough to not be visable. Then you see cars start to roll. A shot from the peds view and the cars aproach. All goes dark. Fade to line of cars moving. As last car moves over you zoom down to ped who has that classic cartoon damaged look. Then text starts typing on the screen..."Texting, its not as funny as this"

I've been near open manholes before that were hard to spot as that state due to low-angle lighting. The workers should have marked off the area before they ever opened the manhole, which I'm sure is their protocol.

Curious, and seemingly unrelated bit of news....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8193951.stm

However it raises the interesting idea of phones/pda actually seeing ahead and possibly warning the user they are about to be stupid.

All those movies where we have machines attached to us to give us super strength/endurance/and other abilities....no, it was just a way for the machine to drive us around while we think less and less.

The workers should have marked off the area before they ever opened the manhole, which I'm sure is their protocol.

Absolutely. Safety is a very high priority with most agencies involved in road work or public works. They certainly need to be. It would be no laughing matter if someone caught their chin on the edge of an open manhole while dropping into it, as it could easily result in a fatality.

Harry

I've been near open manholes before that were hard to spot as that state due to low-angle lighting. The workers should have marked off the area before they ever opened the manhole, which I'm sure is their protocol.

I generally agree, but if she didn't see the manhole, I'm thinking there's a good chance she wouldn't see the cones. Without knowing more about the configuration of the street or the nature of their work (e.g. did they need to remove several inches of soil to find the manhole), it is hard to know whether the workers were really careless. My experience is that caution tape and cones often don't mean much to people who are texting or talking on the phone.

Frankly I think we'd all be safer if we didn't caution mark every little bump and hole. That way people would learn to pay a little more attention to their surroundings.

Frankly I think we'd all be safer if we didn't caution mark every little bump and hole. That way people would learn to pay a little more attention to their surroundings.

+1

When I was commuting on Metra a few years back, I saw more than 1 person sit on the platform's yellow warning tiles with their feet dangling over the track and b!^% when security told them to move. This would be at 5:04 and they would always protest that they were "waiting for the 5:05".:eyebrow:

Your Darwin Award is in the Mail.