Blind stupidity: Cellphone distractions cost ACC $270,000

We're probably all guilty of laughing at viral videos of people walking into stationary objects while being distracted on our cellphones.

But it's no laughing matter, costing taxpayers nearly $270,000 in Accident Compensation Corporation claims over the past three years.

ACC has paid out on 660 claims where cellphone distraction has been noted as the injury's cause.

The Ministry of Transport says that between 2012 and 2016, one pedestrian has been killed and another 31 injured by being distracted either listening to music or talking on their phone.

Distracted walking has become so common, the Germans even invented a word for the people who do it: "smombies" - zombies on smartphones.

Last week a study by Guide Dogs Australia found that more than a third of people using a white cane were bumped into every time they walked out the front door and 60 per cent of those doing the bumping were engrossed in their mobile phone.

Almost half of all white cane users had also been knocked over, injured or had their cane broken by someone walking into them in the past two years, the study said.

Honolulu, the capital of the US state Hawaii, passed a bill in July making it illegal to text while crossing the street.

Ministry of Transport spokesman Brent Johnston says while the government is not looking at a similar law here, "it urges all road users to do their bit to make safety a priority including pedestrians."

He said "everyone needs to be sensible when using and crossing roads."