Miami-Dade Looking Into Legislation For LED Crosswalk Lights

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – How many times have you seen people texting and walking, clearly distracted?

Injuries have increased so much due to this problem that the National Safety Council has now created a category in its annual report.

That's why Miami-Dade County commissioners are proposing legislation to do something about it.

A woman in New Jersey walked straight towards wide open cellar doors and fell head first, six feet to the basement below.

New Jersey police said the 67-year-old was distracted by her cell phone.

A 33-year-old Indiana man died looking at an electronic device believed to be a phone when he plunged off a coastal California cliff.

Johnathan Adkins runs the Governers Highway Safety Association and says the number of pedestrians dying in crashes has soared, up 22% in the last two years to nearly 6,000 deaths in 2016 alone.

"People have forgotten to look both ways," Adkins said. "They're too busy looking at their phones."

That's why Miami-Dade County commissioners are considering a resolution that, if approved, would direct the county mayor to do feasibility study to install LED crosswalk lights, similar to ones that are used in Europe, to protect texting pedestrians from injury.

The proposed legislation is headed to a transportation committee.

Once approved there, the commissioners will have to vote on it before it gets to the mayor's desk.