Gadgets costing people their lives

MOBILE phones and iPods have become the biggest threat to pedestrian safety in Oldham.

Statistics show that almost 90 pedestrians were killed or seriously injured on Oldham’s roads between 2007 and 2009 with more than half of accidents in Greater Manchester caused as a direct result of pedestrians not paying attention.

The annual casualty figures have been released by DriveSafe, Greater Manchester’s Casualty Reduction Partnership.

To tackle the problem it has launched an initiative called “Don’t Live Your Life In A Bubble”, which directly targets pedestrians.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the dangers of being distracted by hand-held gadgets while on foot across the region’s roads and will be implemented in two stages.

The first involves inviting college students to help design the campaign’s branding with the winning artwork fronting a website, being framed and earning an annual travel card from System One.

The second will involve an innovative roadshow touring the county in November, with the details yet to be released.

Karen Delaney, communications manager at DriveSafe, said: “People have just assimilated the use of iPods and mobile phones into their daily life, paying more attention to on these devices than the world around them.”