You've heard about distracted driving; are you ready for distracted walking?

WASHINGTON -- Back in the quaint old 20th century, people used to disparage a person of dull intellect by saying, "He couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time."

How times and technology have changed things. And now a new phrase has entered the lexicon: distracted walking.

That would apply to people who can't walk and use their cellphones without getting themselves injured.

The National Safety Council rolled out its latest statistics on the myriad ways in which Americans got themselves injured or killed in 2013. It was the council's annual accounting of things gone wrong in the home, on the job and on the roadways, in 200-plus pages of fairly depressing but cautionary statistics.

You must stifle your desire to ridicule those who are injured while walking around texting or talking on their cellphones, just as it probably was unfair in the past century to mock those who could not chew while they walked.

For starters, some who are more mindful of their social media interactions than their personal safety end up in the emergency room.

One study cited by the council found that between 2000 and 2011, more than 11,000 people were injured while walking and talking on their phones.

"We've seen dramatic increases in injuries, serious enough to require emergency department visits since 2000," said Kenneth Kolosh, the saftey council's manager of statistics. "And we also see that half of these cases involve cellphone-distracted walking that occurred in the home, so it's not just walking down the street."

Most of the people who reported to emergency rooms with injuries related to distracted walking were women under the age of 40. The overwhelming majority of all injuries (nearly 80 percent) were the result of taking a tumble, though another 9 percent just walked into something hard enough to hurt themselves.

The range of injuries is impressive. Lots of dislocations or broken bones (25 percent), strains or sprains (24 percent) and plenty of concussions or contusions (23 percent).

Distracted walking injuries are not a young person's affliction.

Forty-two percent of the injured were under 30, but there was a healthy representation of victims from older generations.

"We have 20 percent of these injuries happening to individuals at 71 years of age or more," Kolosh said. "This is impacting all age groups, not just the young, heavy users as you might expect."

The other distraction caused when people fiddle with their mobile device is far more dangerous than those that end with falls and fractures.

The council report said that 26 percent of all traffic crashes are linked to drivers using their cell phones or texting. The council estimated that 21 percent were due to cell phone use, while 5 percent of drivers who crash were sending or receiving text messages.

The report said that unintentional injuries were the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and stroke.

The number of people who died as the result of unintentional injuries in 2013 was 130,800, an increase of 2.4 percent above the previous year. Roadway deaths dropped while home and public deaths both increased.

In addition to those who died in 2013, about 39 million people received medical attention for injury, the report said. The economic impact of these the deaths and nonfatal unintentional injuries was calculated at $820.6 billion, the report said.

The National Safety Council is a 102-year-old nonprofit organization originally chartered by Congress.