Texting Woman Falls Into Canal in Freezing Conditions (Video, PHOTO)
Texting has caused a woman to fall into a canal in England after she lost her bearings while focusing on writing a text to her boyfriend.
The incident took place in Birmingham in the Midlands of England, and involved a top radio personality working for London station, Capital FM Radio.
Laura Safe was on her way to a Birmingham mall when she took out her cell phone to send a text message to her boyfriend. Like many others who walk and text, she found herself not paying enough attention to where she was going. Unfortunately as she continued writing she walked towards a local canal, which was iced over after the recent freezing weather in the region recently.
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Focusing on her message, she just half-glanced out of the top of her eye above the phone at where she was going as she reached the foot of a stairwell next to the shopping mall. However, Safe mistakenly thought ice covering the canal near to the foot of the stairs was still the pavement, and instead of turning away from the water she continued walking forward straight into the canal.
Safe later tweeted on her social media account: "Oh dear. I should really be called Laura UNsafe after the day I've had! Lol. I thought ice on the canal was pavement because it looked dark in the corner of my eye."
A nearby surveillance camera caught the entire incident and showed Safe walking down the stairs looking at her phone as she approached the shopping mall's main plaza. However, she continues walking into the semi iced-over canal and suddenly drops straight down into the near-freezing cold water.
According to the Sun newspaper in the UK, a bystander, local businessman Neil Edginton, also saw what was about to happen as Safe headed towards the canal, and shouted out to warn her. However, his warning was not heard by her in time, and did not stop her falling in.
Edginton rushed to her rescue and pulled Safe out of the water. He later reported to the Sun: "(I) realized her focus was on her mobile phone and that she was going to walk straight into the water. I shouted to her to stop but it was too late. I dropped my phone and ran over to her. I had to lay down on the side with my arms in the water because she was submerged and pulled her out."
Safe later contemplated her ordeal to the Sun: "I'm a lot more cautious. I don't text any more. I'm too scared."
Here is a video of the surveillance footage capturing her drop:
