In South Korea, smartphone cases come with rings tied on the back of the mobile phones to prevent clumsy owners from dropping them. This makes people look like they literally are     1     to their phones. In many of Seoul’s most Instagrammable coffee shops, couples on dates spend     2     more time looking at their screens than at each other. The results go beyond the potentially damaging consequences this may hold for romance.

Walk around the streets of Seoul or any other South Korean city, and there is a real risk of bumping into people whose eyes are     3     to their smartphone screens. Insurers     4     that around 370 traffic accidents annually are cause by pedestrains using smartphones. That figure does not include those who bump into lamp posts and the like while watching the latest cat videos.

The government     5     tried to fight the “smombie” (a combination of “smartphone” and “zombie”) epidemic (传染病) by distributing hundreds of stickers around cities appealing to people to “be safe” and to look up. This seems to have had little effect, so the South Korean-capital has recently     6     the stickers with sturdier (结实的) plastic boards.

Instead of appealing to people’s good     7    , the authorities have therefore tried to save them from being run over. Early last year, they began to     8     with floor-level traffic lights in smombie hotspots in central Seoul. Since then, the trail has been     9     around and beyond the capital. For the moment, the government is     10     old-fashioned eye-level pedestrian lights as well. But in the future, the way to look at a South Korean crossroads may be down.

Charity Cycling UK recently launched a campaign to raise awareness of dooring after discovering that many people don’t know what it is. Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens the door into another road user—typically cyclist—without looking for other road users.

Cycling UK chief executive Paul Tuohy told Gloucestershire Live: “Some people seem to see car dooring as a bit of a joke, but it’s not and can have serious consequences. Cycling UK wants to see great awareness made about the dangers of opening your car door carelessly, and people to be encouraged to look before they open.”

The charity says 2,009 of the 3,000 injuries were sustained by cyclists, resulting in five fatalities but says this might not be the full extent of the danger.

Cycling UK says not all car dooring incidents will be attended by police, so the charity has written to transport minister Jesse Norman calling for a public awareness campaign urging all car occupants, not just drivers, to look before opening vehicle doors. One of the ways the charity suggests is the “Dutch reach”, where people leaving a vehicle reach over and use the non-door side hand to open the door.

Cycling UK also suggests harsher laws and advice on safer road positioning for people who cycle.

Mr. Tuohy said: “In the Netherlands they are known for practicing a method, known sometimes as the ‘Dutch reach’, which we think could be successfully encouraged in the UK.”

“Cycling UK has written to the Department for Transport asking them to look into this, and highlight the dangers of ‘car dooring’ through a public awareness THINK style campaign.”

If you’re really concerned about opening a door into the path of a cyclist coming behind you, consider using what’s known as the “Dutch reach” to open the door. That will naturally turn you in your seat and give you a much better view of what’s coming up alongside in the car.