Mobile phone-users take a step too far

WHILE walking along Patrick Street in Cork recently, I received an elbow in the eye from a sky-gazing, six-foot-tall young man as he chatted on his mobile phone.

On another occasion I was head-butted in the stomach by an innocent child being dragged along by a glaze-eyed parent also on a mobile phone.

But this was the last straw. A ground-gazing, mobile phone-wielding young mother wheeled her child-bearing buggy straight into me as I walked on the pavement — the metal edge of the foot rest catching me right in the shins.

At my painful “ouch” she responded, as did the others, with a foolish grin and carried on.

Often these mobile phone-users are completely unaware that they have just assaulted a passer-by.

Would it be too much to expect that mobile phone-users in busy streets be obliged to step to the inside of the pavement and stand still for the few minutes of their call?

Margaret O’Riordan

East Hill

Cobh

Co Cork