Town cracks down on walking, talking, texting multitaskers

Next time you go for a stroll in Fort Lee, N.J., make sure you aren't distracted by something like your phone. Careless pedestrians there run the risk of being ticketed for not paying attention to their surroundings, even though there's no specific charge for being a distracted walker. Police Chief Tomas Ripoli says his force has tried everything from pamphlets to brochures about the dangers of walking and talking, but people still don't learn, and there have been 23 pedestrian accidents, three of them fatal, since January. Now cops are handing out summonses, which, despite a lack of any on-the-books legal consequences, is bound to be an annoying inconvenience worth watching out for -- as is that traffic signal.