Next time you are on your regular stroll engrossed in your phone, make sure you are nowhere near the Fort Lee area in New Jersey. In case you do, you have a chance of losing some bucks as a penalty in this US town.

Apparently, majority of the citizens here have turned jaywalkers, because they are busy texting and checking Facebook or Twitter updates, all the while sauntering along the road.

Such behavior has resulted in many accidents in the area, which include 20 car hits just in the last year.

The law & order of Fort Lee was alerted and it was found that texting while walking is a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they’re going.

The Police have tried to create awareness, but nobody is concerned. They don’t have the time to look up from their virtual word and have a glance at what’s actually happening around them. So the police had nothing to do other than imposing a fine. The penalty amount is not a petty sum – you will have to pay a hefty $85 if you are caught.

This has proved a jolt to the mobile addicts a bit; around 117 of them happily received the tickets in the first month, instead of injuring themselves later on the road.

While previously it was texting that has made people impervious to the real world, now the culprit is social networking.

Police are in full swing to wipe out this terrible habit from the public. They have also started a special patrol to pick up dangerous walkers.

We also learn that the police have been handing out leaflets to the citizens warning about this crackdown.

Don’t you think it would make much of a difference if the police could send SMS texts to people’s phones or post the awareness messages on Facebook walls?