Texting while driving is widely considered dangerous, but texting while walking poses its own safety risks. It is far more dangerous to take your eyes off the road while driving, but even pedestrians put themselves and others at risk when they don't pay attention. Is it time to punish those busybodies who try to operate their smartphones on the sidewalk?

Fort Lee, a New Jersey town 21 kilometres outside of New York City, has decided to criminalize texting and walking. As part of a larger effort to crack down on jaywalkers who cross the street without using the designated crossing areas, Fort Lee officers are also issuing $85 fines to pedestrians who give in to the "big distraction" of a mobile phone.

Fort Lee is not the first town to begin cracking down on pedestrians who text and walk at the same time. Philadelphia started issuing $120 fines to careless cell phone users walking on city streets in 2011, and London pad-wrapped a number of lampposts to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while walking back in 2008.

Reliable data for how often pedestrians are hurt because of cell phone use is hard to find, but there have been numerous accidents - some comical and others very serious - as a result of people paying more attention to their phones than their surroundings. People have fallen into fountains, down stairs, and nearly into the hands of a bear. These incidents didn't happen on busy streets, but they illustrate just how careless some people can be at times. That's why Fort Lee may not be the last place to punish texting while walking.

Supporters of criminalizing texting and walking say it's a long overdue step to curb carelessness brought on by mobile phone use. Critics counter that this is an overreach of authority that punishes everyone for the mistakes of a few. Which side of the argument do you support?