While pedestrians stopped to try and help her, her leg was wedged too far into the grate to be removed. After about 45 minutes, authorities showed up to help the young woman and were able to free her from the street grate without much harm.
Speaking about the incident, a representative for the fire brigade said “We managed to remove the bars and quickly freed her once we arrived at the scene. Her leg was a bit scratched and bruised and numb from being squeezed through the bars, but she quickly recovered and not need hospital treatment.”
Of course, this ordeal is somewhat tame compared to previous texting while walking incidents. During early 2012, a woman walked off a pier into Lake Michigan while trying to text and walk at the same time. Later that year, another texter walked off a cliff while typing a message and fell 60 feet onto rocks below.
Interestingly, a Utah university recently added a texting while walking lane for students glued to their smartphones while walking to class. Specifically, stairs were divided up into three lanes for walking, running and texting. While the lane was originally intended as a joke, the picture of the stairs went viral on the Web and brought attention to the school for the idea of splitting up distracted students into a separate walking lane.
