Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: (Reuters) - A ban on pedestrians looking at mobile phones or texting while crossing the street will take effect in Hawaii’s largest city in late October, as Honolulu becomes the first major U.S. city to pass legislation aimed at reducing injuries and deaths from “distracted walking.” 
  
 FILE PHOTO: A woman uses a mobile device in San Francisco, California July 21, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo 
  
 The ban comes as cities around the world grapple with how to protect phone-obsessed “smartphone zombies” from injuring themselves by stepping into traffic or running into stationary objects. 
  
 Starting Oct. 25, Honolulu pedestrians can be fined between $15 and $99, depending on the number of times police catch them looking at a phone or tablet device as they cross the street, Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters gathered near one of the city’s busiest downtown intersections on Thursday. 
  
 “We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county,” Caldwell said. Honolulu data on distracted-walking incidents was not immediately available. 
  
 Caldwell signed the legislation on Thursday after it was passed in a 7-2 vote by the city council earlier this month, city records show. ( bit.ly/2veHFau ) 
  
 People making calls for emergency services are exempt from the ban. ( bit.ly/2v76lRA ) 
  
 More than 11,000 injuries resulted from phone-related distraction while walking in the United States between 2000 and 2011, according to a University of Maryland study published in 2015. 
  
 The findings pushed the non-profit National Safety Council to add “distracted walking” to its annual compilation of the biggest risks for unintentional injuries and deaths in the United States, highlighting the severity of the issue. 
  
 “Cell phones are not just pervading our roadways but pervading our sidewalks too,” Maureen Vogel, a spokeswoman for the council, said in a phone interview on Friday. 
  
 Efforts to save pedestrians from their phones extend beyond America’s shores. London has experimented with padding lamp posts to soften the blow for distracted walkers, according to the Independent newspaper. 
  
 In Germany, the city of Augsburg last year embedded traffic signals into the ground near tram tracks to help downward-fixated pedestrians avoid injury, local media reported. 
  
 Opponents of the Honolulu law argued it infringes on personal freedom and amounts to government overreach. 
  
 “Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues,” resident Ben Robinson told the city council in written testimony. ||||| The normally reliable ITN (the commercial equivalent of the BBC News) has been taken in by a publicity stunt to promote UK directory enquiry service 118 118. The company put pads on lamp posts in London's Brick Lane claiming that they would protect pedestrians distracted by their mobile phones. 
  
 ITN reported that the stunt was in fact a trial scheme, and that the safety pads would be rolled out across other major UK towns. But a local paper, the East London Advertiser, has the scoop. The whole thing was guerilla marketing, and the setup was taken down shortly after a photo-shoot. 118 118 makes a good point, though. According to a study it commissioned, "62 per cent of Britons concentrate so hard on their mobile phone when texting they lose peripheral vision." 
  
 Padding to protect pedestrians [ITN] 
  
 Got your number! town hall tells phone co [East London Advertiser] |||||
Student:
You won't find padded lampposts in Honolulu. That's because the Hawaiian city hopes to discourage pedestrians from "distracted walking" altogether, notably with one piece of legislation its mayor signed into law late last week, Reuters reports. Per the new mandate to combat "smartphone zombies," pedestrians who check their electronic devices while crossing the street will be fined (between $15 and $99, based on how many times a law enforcement official spots them sneaking a peek). Mayor Kirk Caldwell says the law was necessary because Honolulu has the "unfortunate distinction" of having more people be slammed into by cars than almost any other city in the US. However, critics say the law curtails personal freedom and will pull law enforcement away from more pressing problems. "Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues," one citizen wrote to the city council, which passed the bill 7-2 last month. Honolulu may be the most major city to pass such a rule, but Fox News points out that at least one other city—Fort Lee, NJ—has a similar no-texting-while-walking law. Who won't get busted under the law, which goes into effect Oct. 25: anyone making a call for emergency services.