Walking while talking on your cell phone could get you killed. iPod? No problem

It usually happens like this. I'm walking across town while talking on my cell phone when I fail to notice the traffic light has changed. My foot leaves the curb and is about to step into the roadway when a hand -- belonging to a friend or sometimes a complete stranger -- jerks me out of the street back onto the sidewalk.

Near death (or just injury that occurs when steel plows into flesh) averted, barely. I've been called absentminded, and this has happened, I'm embarrassed to admit, what, a dozen times? But now it seems I may have science on my side.