Texting while walking is as distracting as texting while driving.

Pedestrians who text lose track of where they are and how fast they’re moving, a SUNY Stony Brook study says.

On a 26-foot course, those who texted moved about 33 percent more slowly than normal. And most were so distracted, they failed to walk a straight line to an end point and didn’t notice when they went past it.

“Walking is not automatic,” said study co-author Eric Lamberg. “If you are not fully concentrating on walking because you are multitasking, you could misstep… or walk into traffic.”

He said safety might be enhanced by more use of text-to-voice technology, which converts texts into audible messages.