‘Twalking’ injuries – suffered while texting and walking – have risen 50 percent since 2012: including 67-year-old woman who fell down trapdoor and man who fell off cliff taking photo of sunset

Looking down at your phone to text, check email, or scroll social media could end up with a trip to the hospital.

Injuries from 'twalking' or texting while walking are becoming increasingly common, with doctors seeing an increase in patients with cuts, bruises and even fractures due to distracted walking.

Sending messages while on the go will soon become the most common reason for tech injuries in the US, researchers have found.

Phones currently cause 23 percent of tech injuries nationwide — from things like tripping over cords to bumping into objects while texting.

This made phones the second most dangerous technology product in America after TVs, typically leading to injuries when people try to pick them up.

It comes as academics in Australia said taking selfies should be considered a 'public health problem'.

Decluttr – an online trade-in platform that buys unwanted technology – used National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) data collected over the past decade on technology-related injuries and found that they have increased by 20 percent since 2020.

The increase is partly due to pandemic lockdowns, which have made us more dependent on technology, the company said.

And technology-addicted millennials are the most accident-prone.

Types of incidents included running into lampposts and bus stops, tripping into water fountains, and falling down stairs.

General pain was the most common complaint with twalking injuries, followed by bruising and cuts, especially of the face and head.

Dr. Sean Rockett, an orthopedic doctor from New England, told DailyMail.com that he has seen “a lot of ankle sprains and wrist fractures from falling off curbs” while patients were on the phone.

A team from Australia analyzed scientific articles and media reports of selfie-related injuries or deaths worldwide since 2008, and found that nearly 400 reports had been made over the thirteen-year study period – including 77 in the US.

The victims were most likely female tourists in their early twenties, while falling and drowning while taking a photo were the two leading causes of death.

In 2017, a 67-year-old woman threw herself through an entry door in New Jersey because she was distracted by her phone.

She was then rushed to hospital for medical treatment.

In 2015, a man died after falling off a cliff in san diego after trying to take a photo of the sunset, according to police.

“He wasn't looking where he was going and was looking more at the device,” said San Diego Lifeguard Sgt. Bill Bender told CBS.

In August 2012, a Philadelphia man fell onto the tracks while talking on the phone, but was helped off the tracks before a train arrived.

In the same year AAn Indiana mother named Bonnie Miller had to be rescued from Lake Michigan after she fell into the water while walking on a pier texting and not paying attention.

'I made an appointment at the wrong time so I sent about three words. Next thing you know it was water,” Ms. Miller told ABC57.com after her March 2012 accident.

Her husband realized what was happening and jumped after her as other passersby shouted for help.

In 2011, 19-year-old Ryan Robbins died after a night out in Melbourne, Australia, when he accidentally walked over a short railing in a parking lot and plunged to his death while texting his friend.

Earlier this year, researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia asked 50 young adults to walk on a paved path, with a sliding tile that would cause them to slip.

They did this without texting or while typing the phrase “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” into their phone.

Texting was found to increase the risk of accidental falls among the study volunteers, who were recorded slipping but wearing a safety harness to prevent them from actually falling to the ground and sustaining injuries.

The results — that texting pedestrians are at risk of falling — may seem obvious, but motion sensors attached to each person provided insight into why texting while walking is potentially such a bad idea.

When people texted, their walking pattern was less stable and they were less able to regain their balance.

A separate, comparable study published in JAMA examined two decades of emergency department data in 2019 and found a spike in cell phone-related incidents.

Researchers found that the number of cell phone-related head and neck injuries while doing things like walking has steadily increased between 1998 and 2017, as cell phones have become a permanent part of most Americans' hands.

While most injuries were minor, such as cuts and bruises, some were more serious and included fractures.