Do you walk along while switched on to a mobile phone, staring at a GPS gadget, reading a Kindle or even playing a Nintendo?! If so, then you could well be fuelling new statistics that reveal the reported injuries involving people walking while distracted by their handsets have gone up fourfold in seven years in America.

It’s the huge increase in ownership of these handsets that has led to an increase in what’s being called “distracted walking” accidents. This happens when someone is strolling along a street or a trail with their mobile device in their hand, lost in their own small world of tapping out a text or playing a game – and fails to notice someone or something before it’s too late.

An ABC News report reveals that increasing numbers of walkers are being treated in hospitals “after getting into a scrape (or worse)” while using their handset.

Now police in some parts of America are so fed up with the consequences of distracted walking that they are handing out leaflets explaining the dangers of walking while concentrating on a hand-held gadget.

A spokesperson said: “They’re walking against the red light, and they’re being struck by vehicles. We had three fatalities this year, and 23 people hurt, hit, in a three-month period.”

Perhaps it might seem a little farfetched to imagine this happening in the UK, but what usually happens is that Britain follows the US. You have been warned!