Researchers found that texting while crossing the road was the riskiest activity, making people four times more likely to ignore oncoming traffic and disobey the lights.
They found texters also took longer to cross the street at busy junctions, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
One in three pedestrians were using phones or doing something else distracting at the same time as they were trying to cross the road.
The findings come from a "real-time" study of more than 1,000 pedestrians who were watched at busy road junctions, in the US city of Seattle.
Like drink driving, there should be a "low tolerance" approach to pedestrian behaviour that puts both them and others at risk of serious injury, Dr Beth Ebel from the University of Washington, said.
"Some years ago no one would think twice about having a couple of drinks before getting in the car to drive home. But today people know the risks and we have to get that same level of awareness in an era of growing distraction. We may need advertising campaigns to get the message home" she said.
There is increasing concern about the near trance-like state people adopt while using mobile phones and MP3 players, which psychologists call "divided attention" or "inattentional blindness".
Research suggests serious accidents involving people wearing headphones while walking in the street have tripled.
In the latest study, 1,100 people were observed crossing 20 busy road junctions at different times of the day, including the morning rush hour.
The observers recorded "distracting" activities, such as talking on the phone, text messaging, or listening to music on mobile devices, as well as talking to others or dealing with children or pets.
Just under 30 per cent of pedestrians were doing something else when they crossed the road, said a report in the journal Injury Prevention.
One in 10 people were listening to music, seven per cent were texting and six per cent were talking on the phone. Those who were distracted took significantly longer to cross the road - 0.75 to 1.29 seconds longer.
