Mobile devices are distractions for pedestrians as well as drivers.
Beyond Glendale’s city limits, in Burbank this morning, a woman stepped off the curb and walked into the uncontrolled intersection in front of me. She was looking intently at her mobile device, holding it in front of her with two hands, probably texting. I stopped my vehicle. She did not make eye contact with me or look in the direction of my car.
She also didn’t look in the other direction. If she had, she would have seen a blue Cadillac closing in at full speed. Before I could think to honk the horn at her and the other driver, he slammed on his brakes and stopped right next to her, missing her by about an inch. At that point, she looked up from her phone, surprised.
Just in case she was so preoccupied that she wouldn’t learn a lesson from the incident, I lowered my car window and yelled at her, “Don’t text while crossing the street!” The elderly man in the Cadillac apologized, to me.
Does Burbank have internet filtering software to limit news coming from Glendale? How can a person walking across a major street in broad daylight be so oblivious to the mortal threat posed by moving vehicles?