Death toll among pedestrians wearing headphones triples

• Science wrote on 2012-01-18 12:04

  The number of US pedestrians who have been killed or badly injured while wearing headphones has tripled in six years, according to a study published Tuesday.
  
  The annual tally rose from 16 in 2004 to 47 in 2011, bringing the total of cases to 116 over this period, say the authors.
  
  More than half of the incidents involved pedestrians who were run down by trains.
  Two-thirds of the victims were males and under the age of 30.
  
  The research, published in the British journal Injury Prevention, was headed by Richard Lichenstein of the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore.
  
  The paper warns of "inattentional blindness" when wearing headphones, meaning a distraction that lowers the resources the brain devotes to external stimuli.
  
  The trawl of US accident statistics covered iPods, MP3 players and other musical devices. It did not include mobile phones.

  
  
  http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-among-pedestrians-wearing-headphones-triples-011927509.html
  
  Kinda made me laugh, but makes me a little scared too.
  
  And if this isn't news enough for the news section, mybad.
• Cynic wrote on 2012-01-18 12:16
  I'm not really surprised. It's the same reason why people chatting on their phones or texting get into so many accidents.
  
  Multi-tasking can be good, just not when you're out and about in every-day life.
• Bride wrote on 2012-01-18 12:32
  i shouldn't be surprised but i am :( i've never done this and i never will either. their music must've been pretty loud if they weren't able to hear the train though o_o
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2012-01-18 12:52
  Hmm. *notes to self*
  
  Stay away from Train tracks and keep my eyes on the road for incoming traffic.
  
  I'm a pedestrian myself. I walk EVERYWHERE...with headphones on listening to my iPod I'll have to admit so this story really hits home for me.
  
  I'll have to be more careful.
• RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-01-18 14:22
  I'm really surprised the number is that small. People might as well be partially deaf while they're listening to music through headphones.
  
  It's also probably a bad idea to listen to headphones in the car, but I suppose not nearly as bad as texting.
  

  Quote from Kingofrunes;740513:

  Hmm. *notes to self*
  
  Stay away from Train tracks and keep my eyes on the road for incoming traffic.
  
  I'm a pedestrian myself. I walk EVERYWHERE...with headphones on listening to my iPod I'll have to admit so this story really hits home for me.
  
  I'll have to be more careful.

  
  Well 116 out of hundreds of millions is a really small number. I'm surprised 116 people in my city alone haven't died in [S]the past 6 years[/S] combined between the year of 2004 and the year of 2011 from wearing headphones while walking around. Chances are more people have died of tripping on their shoelaces and falling face first on concrete.
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2012-01-19 08:28
  Well some pedistrian got hit today where I cross every morning. It's a pretty busy street and so it requires the most attention to cross. I haven't had any problems crossing so I'm not worried.
  
  I've seen people cross at some really stupid times. How hard is it to wait for the friggen light to turn green? Crossing when it's red is just dangerous or stupid. Well I admit I have crossed when it's red but only after carefully calculating the traffic and knowing for sure that there's enough distance to make it easily.
• Hiccup wrote on 2012-01-19 09:08
  Lol you have eyes. Lets use em k?
  
  Problems solved.
• Skye wrote on 2012-01-19 09:21

  Quote from Hiccup;741440:

  Lol you have eyes. Lets use em k?
  
  Problems solved.

  
  
  Fer rizzle. ಠ_ಠ
  
  I'm always especially watchful when using headphones.
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2012-01-19 16:14

  Quote from Skye;741465:

  Fer rizzle. ಠ_ಠ
  
  I'm always especially watchful when using headphones.

  
  
  Same. You'd have to be really careless to not look carefully before crossing. I guess people really have no brain/common sense.
  
  However, if you get lost in your own thoughts with headphones on and zone out, well then you could end up as roadkill. I've zoned out a few times lost in my thoughts. In fact, did that the other day walking home with my laundry. Next thing I know I had walked right past where I should have crossed to go home. But thankfully, this was when I wasn't near any intersection.
• Taycat wrote on 2012-01-19 16:25
  All I can do is say how stupid the people are for not taking off the headphones or looking around more carefully.
• Elena wrote on 2012-01-19 20:38
  I wear headphones. ;w;
  
  I also look both ways before crossing the street, though. It's not even hard. Do they walk staring at the ground?