Now a pair of new studies by the University of Illinois reveals yet another risk of cell phone use -- you're more likely to be hit by a car.  The studies, conducted by psychology professor Art Kramer, psychology professor Jason McCarley, and postdoctoral researcher Mark Neider, had participants cross a virtual street and measured whether their responses put them in danger.  The patients walked along the virtual street using a treadmill device.

Music was found to be perfectly safe for pedestrians; participants listening to music were found to perform no worse than standard (unencumbered) pedestrians.  However, those talking on hands free headsets showed possibly deadly mistakes.  And those talking directly into their cell phones were even more careless.

Overall, the results indicate the same conclusions cell phone driving studies have -- directly talking into your phone greatly raises your distraction, but talking into hands-free headsets also raises distraction to a lesser extent.  Describes Professor Kramer, "Many people assume that walking is so automatic that really nothing will get in the way. And walking is pretty automatic, but actually walking in environments that have lots of obstacles is perhaps not as automatic as one might think."

The first study examined a college age population of test subjects.  It found that participants were more likely to dally in crosswalks, not crossing in the allotted 30 seconds.  The cell phone talkers, in fact took 25 percent longer to cross the street than their undistracted peers.  Each participant encountered the same number and speed of cars.

That study was published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

A new study, not yet published, looks at the effects of cell phone use on elderly pedestrians.  It gave the patients 60 and older the same task, including some who had a history of falling.  It found that the elderly were at an even greater risk of traffic fatality when chatting on their phone.  There was a broader gap between those not talking on the phone and those talking on the phone than in the younger population, as well.

Describes Professor Kramer, "Older adults on the phone got run over about 15 percent more often" than those not on the phone, he said, and those with a history of falling fared even worse. So walking and talking on the phone while old, especially, appears to be dangerous."