That's the view of Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby, who has conducted his own observations. Thing is, there are no official figures about this aspect of traffic-related injuries, and motorists mostly get the blame.
"The worst part about this is that the statistics are not just under-reported, they are not reported at all, so we don't know how many accidents or deaths have occurred because someone was distracted by their phone or iPod," Mr Scruby told the Australian Courier-Mail newspaper. "It just goes down as a pedestrian being hit."
He said that when people were distracted by mobile phones they 'behave like sheep' and follow others on to the road without looking.
Paramedics who have to treat the injured and police who have to follow up the incidents both say it is difficult to get true statistics because the people involved don't admit that they were using the phone at the time they were involved in the collisions with cars, bicycles and other pedestrians.
