Girl Falls Into Sidewalk Sinkhole, Learns Dangers Of Distracted Walking

Those of us who text and walk, or walk and talk, or Facebook and walk have plenty of dangers to worry about. While we’re looking down at our smartphones and traversing the city, we could get fla...
Girl Falls Into Sidewalk Sinkhole, Learns Dangers Of Distracted Walking
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Those of us who text and walk, or walk and talk, or Facebook and walk have plenty of dangers to worry about. While we’re looking down at our smartphones and traversing the city, we could get flattened by a car, smash our heads into a streetlight, accidentally tackle an elderly lady – really any number of accidents could occur from not paying attention.

    One of the dangers that I never really thought about was plunging down into a sinkhole.

    But that’s just what happened to a teenager in China. Today reports that the young girl fell 20 feet, as did the nice cab driver who tried to help her. Miraculously, all parties involved are okay thanks to the work of the firefighter rescue squad.

    Even more miraculous (for everyone on the interwebs), it was all captured on video. It’s kind of painful to watch, but you know you wanna:

    Having almost ended the life of some dumb kid on his iPhone who was walking across the street the other day, no kind of distracted walking story can surprise me. Besides being run over by a car, I guess falling in a giant hole is probably the most devastating thing that can happen to the perpetually unaware.

    Maybe the idea of a smartphone sidewalk lane isn’t really that bad of an idea. As an April Fool’s joke, the city of Philadelphia put up a texting-only “E-Lane” on one of their city sidewalks. It was a joke, but maybe it was rooted in an actual need for something like this?

    In all seriousness, however, wtf China? I’m sure there was a caution sign somewhere, but could it hurt to put up some ropes or some tape around the area? Jeez.

    I’m almost scared to see how many sinkholes people will be falling into when Google Glasses actually become a reality.

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