This hilarious video of walking and texting fails has a horrifying ending

pulse

July 19, 2017 12:58 PM

A new PSA campaign out of South Africa is getting tons of attention.

terrifying texting and driving psa

Videos of people walking and texting have been circulating the Internet forever.

Some of them involve perpetrators face planting into fountains, while others involve them walking into poles. Regardless of the outcome, these videos make us laugh out loud, but also seriously cringe.

The latest such comical video comes from South Africa's Western Cape Government, and it features much of the usual comical fare, but then it takes a hard turn for the serious.

The 40-second video, which has more than a quarter of a million views on the organization’s YouTube channel so far, concludes shows a girl getting into a serious car crash because she was paying attention to her phone instead of the road. The point? If we can’t even walk and text successfully, why do we attempt driving and texting?

According to the #ItCanWait campaign’s website, the U.S. National Safety Council estimates that 28 percent of all crashes in America involve cell phones, mostly due to text messaging. This puts cell phone use right behind alcohol and speeding as the biggest causes of fatal crashes here.

Research also shows that our society’s addiction to texting is because of dopamine response in our brains when we get a new message—nothing is more important in that moment. Dr. Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D., a psychologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin, told Men's Health that since we are social creatures, we are biologically driven to foster connections. Each text we send and receive satisfies our need for human contact.

But like the South African campaign says, “no call or text is worth your life.” Next time you get in your car, try stashing your phone in your glove compartment so you won’t see it blowing up. Out of sight, out of mind.

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