Remember as a child your mother would give you advice to always look both ways before crossing the street?   Apparently the older we get, the more we tend to forget to take that advice.

Talking on the phone, texting your friends and listening to your iPod all seem harmless but doing it while crossing the street; it has become dangerous to the lives of

Fresno City College students. Students are now becoming distracted from the slightest things at the wrong time.  

“It gets me mad when a pedestrian is distracted while crossing, especially when they talk and text. It just makes me want to run over their phone because they are risking their life for a text or call that’s not worth getting severally injured over,” said Vanessa Alvarez, astudent at FCC and Radiology major.

“It’s funny because someone just did that right now,” Alvarez then pointed out a distracted pedestrian on their phone, while crossing the street.

Students also have been known to jaywalk onto oncoming traffic.  Jaywalking refers to a pedestrian who violates traffic regulations, particularly when crossing a street or road.

Usually when Fresno police see a pedestrian jaywalking they are immediately approached and given a ticket. According to Alvarez she has seen a couple students given jaywalking citations from campus police. Students who drive at FCC need to be aware of their surroundings while driving because they do not know when a student who is rushing to class decides to cross the street without looking. Please do remember that pedestrians always have the right away but it does not always mean that pedestrians crossing are fully aware of traffic.

Crossing pedestrians are not the only ones getting the finger pointed at for multitasking; drivers are doing the exact same thing. Thanks to the California Senate Bill 1613, signed by California’s former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, drivers are prohibited to use their cellphones while being behind the wheel. They are now forced to use hand-free devices such as the Bluetooth device.

Drivers are being obligated to pay a fine of $20 for their first time offense of breaking the law and a $50 fine for every additional offense. A way to save some money is to simply pay attention and keep your eyes on the road.

According to Drivinglaws.org, 5 percent of all traffic accidents are caused by distracted cell phone users.

As busy as the traffic gets while trying to find parking or attempting to drive off campus, we have to keep our eyes open for crossing pedestrians and oncoming cars.

Risking your life is not the brightest idea, so do not forget to look both ways.