Distracted walking can be as hazardous as distracted driving, the public was reminded after the deeply unfortunate Christmas Day death of a man in San Diego. Lifeguards say the man was walking and looking at a device in the Sunset Cliffs area at sunset around 4:50 p.m. Friday when he dropped 60 feet to his death, the New York Daily News reports. "Witnesses stated seeing someone distracted by an electronic device and he just fell over the edge," lifeguard Bill Bender tells NBC San Diego. He "wasn't watching where he was walking, he was looking down at the device in his hands."
The man apparently drove to the area with a passenger to watch the sunset. KABC reports he struggled to find parking and exited the vehicle in search of a spot; that's when witnesses say he was looking at a device and plummeted.
Bender says that after the man fell, three witnesses "put themselves at jeopardy" by making their way down the rocks to administer CPR to the man, who was in his 30s, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. NBC San Diego cites lifeguard speculation that the device was a phone or camera, but says no such device has been recovered yet.
