Germans stick traffic lights in pavement for phone addicts

[tangor]

The German city of Augsburg is embedding warning lights in the pavement at traffic intersections to alert smartphone users who don't looking up before crossing the road.

Rows of red LEDs have been embedded in the pavement after a 15-year-old girl was killed when she stepped in front of a tram while looking at her smartphone and listening to music. Two other people have been seriously injured in separate but similar incidents.

The city authorities have installed the lights at two tram stops near the local university and will roll out the scheme if successful. It's particularly concerned that young people are most at risk.

[theregister.co.uk...]

Obviously we don't want to see anyone hurt or killed, but trying to save these folks will only contaminate the gene pool with more stupidity!

[tangor]

Side note: when I travel on public transportation I have the illusion of entering a religious sanctuary where all the patrons are with bowed head and deep meditation.

Sadly, the incidence of myopia will be more pronounced in generations to come since people simply can't tear their gaze away from a tiny screen held inches from their face!

[engine]

Yes, we don't want to see anyone hurt, but, really, common sense seems to have gone missing at some point.

[lucy24]

I looked it up. The minimum age for Darwin Awards [darwinawards.com] is 16.

[bwnbwn]

A chiropractic has come up with a new term it is called Text Neck were he treats people because they look down at the phone. It is especially bad in kids as their bones are still forming and are getting bent necks from hours on the games or phones. He created an app to warn when their posture is bad. [text-neck.com...]

[engine]

hehehe, so true.
This morning I stopped at a crossing and I watched as a number of people crossed in front of me and all of those with their faces stuck into the phones were youngsters. A couple of them never looked up as they crossed the road. That's risky as it wasn't an official crossing point and reliant on car drivers seeing them and stopping.