Texting while Walking, Woman Falls into Fountain

READING, Pa., We've all been warned about the dangers of texting and driving, but for one woman, it turned out that texting while walking wasn't a good idea.

Cathy Cruz Marrero was doing just that in the Berkshire Mall in Reading, Pa. when she suddenly tumbled headfirst into a water fountain, getting completely drenched.

It was caught by the mall's surveillance video system, then posted on YouTube, where it's been viewed almost 2 million times.

Cruz Marrero, 49, who works in the mall, has hired an attorney.

She wasn't hurt, "at least not physically," remarked "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge.

But Cruz Marrero says what does hurt is "the humiliation (from the video having been put online). The humiliation. Ask my husband: I cried for days. … You don't know how many people are laughing at me."

Texting while walking, Cruz says, is "dangerous. … I could have been walking into a bus, a car, a ditch, anything. Texting and walking, take it from me, is dangerous. It really is."

She told the Reading Eagle, "I don't think security was professional because they didn't send anyone to check on me until 20 minutes later and I had already left."

On "The Early Show," Wragge and fellow co-anchors Erica Hill, Jeff Glor and Marysol Castro weighed in on the incident, which was shown repeatedly as they spoke:

[sleepyhollowofgettysburg]

Sounds like another "hot coffee in the crotch" syndrome. Really! Let's have some self accountability here, please. Just like the possibility of getting burned if you go through the drive-thru and put your morning coffee in your lap resulting in your getting burned...if you text and walk,you may also get "burned" by the consequences of not watching where you are going. Does no one accept the consequences of their very own actions anymore???

[momnipotent]

Yes, Cathy - we are all laughing at you. I hope you've learned your lesson. Now redeem yourself by admitting that YOU and ONLY YOU are responsible for this. For texting/walking, for falling into the fountain, for putting yourself into a situation where this happened. And drop the lawsuit, it's only making you look worse. Had you kept this to yourself, no-one would have known it was you, the image is blurry. You got what you deserved.

[zoey1234]

Game Show: Walk of a cliff while texting to win a million dollars. This woman qualafies for this once in a lifetime game.Stupid is as stupid does. Uh she urks me. She gives stupid a bad name.

[DocsGal]

Why on earth would we want a law to prevent this?! Let people keep on texting and walking! Doesn't the public realize that this is a perfect example of DARWIN's LAW in PRACTICE!!! Thin out the herd, get rid of the dead wood, weed out the weaker, stupid, genetically and mentally unacceptable members of the species! Just keep on walking behind, in front of and into dangerous objects while stupidly punching those buttons on that plastic keyboard in front of your face...I don't shed a single tear for these people and if an idiot judge allows these inferior specimens to SUE then we may as well flush our country down the drain.

[DocsGal]

Why on earth would we want a law to prevent this?! Let people keep on texting and walking! Doesn't the public realize that this is a perfect example of DARWIN's LAW in PRACTICE!!! Thin out the herd, get rid of the dead wood, weed out the weaker, stupid, genetically and mentally unacceptable members of the species! Just keep on walking behind, in front of and into dangerous objects while stupidly punching those buttons on that plastic keyboard in front of your face...I don't shed a single tear for these people and if an idiot judge allows these inferior specimens to SUE then we may as well flush our country down the drain.

[chelseasmith22]

my thing is, if you got enough sense to watch where you were going when you got out the car, to walking up or down steps, to laying down and having babies, to looking left or right when driving, then you obviously should have enough sense to watch where you are going when you are texting...point blank period....thats real stupid and dumb on ur part to not watch where you are going, in this day and time you have no choice but too...someone could have snatched her up, took or pocket book or anything...and they bold enough now to do it in the day light....honey you just plain out stupid

[johhnyb123452]

And there is even an App for that too - its for Android and it's called "Walk and Text", hah.

[cherlyq63]

The Lawsuit has precedence due to the fact security tapes are not expected to be made public and are the property of the mall, and also even though she was at fault for the accident, mall security should have assisted her and made her fill out an accident report. The ramifications if she had been injured could have been horrible.

[sld247]

Give me a break! It happened so quickly - she was in, she was out. By the way, she lifted her leg to fall into the fountain; there's no mistaking that on the video. They fired the security guy who "leaked" the tape on youtube. She hasn't got a chance..."Oh poor me, I'm so humiliated" - if she was, she would not be trying to drag this thing out. She's a criminal & needs money. I can't believe people can fall for those crocodile tears...it's pathetic.

[vdubbinp]

I don't remember seeing or hearing her name associated with the video. So how did anyone outside of the mall know who it was. True most of the world is laughing at a woman that by her own negligence made a fool of her self. The truly sad part is that there is a judge and/or jury that will award her her some outlandish amount of money. if she hadn't filed a law suit I never would have known who the idiot was.

[Proxielocks]

DUHH Of course it is funny. I don't feel sorry for her. It is nobodies fault except herself. If she was not texting and watching where she was going like she is suppose too it would not of happen in the first place. Maybe she has learned her lesson from it.