Texting while riding is putting many young cyclists at risk, according to a British survey.
As many as 40 per cent of children aged under 16 use phones and mp3s when riding their bikes despite acknowledging the danger such actions pose, the survey by solicitors Bolt Burdon Kemp found.
Nearly a fifth of the 1,000 children aged 8-16 had an accident or near-miss after being distracted while cycling. The poll showed that music, texting and making calls were the most popular uses of devices while cycling. The survey also revealed that children were more likely to use phones and music players while cycling the older they got, with 44 per cent of 11-13-year-olds and 60 per cent of 14-16-year-olds doing so.
Rise in Halloween spending
UK shoppers are expected to spend more than £300 million celebrating Halloween this year, analysts predict.
Halloween is now the third largest retail season after Christmas and Easter, with Brits likely to pay out £315-325 million on costumes, confectionary and pumpkins, according to Planet Retail.
The influence of the US and the availability of a wider variety of spooky-themed products have contributed to a steady rise in Halloween spending over the last decade, according to the analysts.
Aquanauts ready for job
A team of engineers dubbed “aquanauts” are to start inspecting a massive 90-kilometre pipe that provides water to two million people each day in Britain.
The 80-strong inspection team have undergone training for the project to assess the Haweswater Aqueduct, a colossal engineering feat which delivers 570 million litres of water a day from Cumbria to Manchester and surrounding towns and villages. The aqueduct was started in the 1930s to provide fresh water from Haweswater Reservoir in Cumbria to Heaton Park reservoir in Manchester.
The inspection team have been given fitness tests and psychological training to ensure they can work in small spaces underground for long periods.
Aircraft door drops off
A door that fell off a small plane has been found on a US motel roof.
The door fell from a Beechcraft King Air twin-turboprop plane that took off from Monterey Regional Airport in California on Thursday afternoon. The pilot heard a pop and turned around to land. He realised the door was missing when he was back on the ground.
But the door wasn’t discovered until Friday morning when a contractor working outside the motel noticed it. The front desk manager at the El Castell Motel says no one heard the 34-kilo door crash into the tile roof because the room below was unoccupied. The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the door and the plane to determine why it came loose and fell.
Porn e-books taken off-line
WH Smith has said it is “disgusted” to learn that pornographic e-books were available to buy alongside children’s titles on its website.
The book retailer took its website off-line after it was reported that typing ‘daddy’ into the search box brought up fictional accounts of bondage and sexual humiliation alongside youngsters’ bedtime stories.
The company said this was a “new industry issue due to the explosion of self-publishing”, adding that it was not its policy to feature the titles highlighted and said it had processes in place to screen them out.