Report reveals headphones can kill you

by Steven Mostyn - Jan 17 2012, 06:25

While most gadget users will be aware that listening to music through headphones can potentially damage hearing if not done so responsibly, it’s may come as a shock to learn that headphones can apparently endanger our lives.

Again boiling down to acting with due care and attention, new research offered up by the Maryland Hospital for Children, Baltimore, has uncovered a worrying trend involving U.S. pedestrians being either injured or killed whilst wearing headphones.

According to the study, which covered the use of iPods and other MP3 players, 116 headphone-wearing pedestrians have been either killed or injured between 2004 and 2011—with more than half of that figure struck by trains and the rest hit by road vehicles.

Also, 74 percent of all reported incidents stated that the victim was wearing headphones at the time of the crash, and in 29 percent of cases an audible warning was sounded directly before impact.

In terms of gender and age-specific spread, those most likely to fall foul of a headphone-related rail or road accident are male (68 percent) and aged below 30.

The hospital’s research suggests that headphones can lead to “inattentional blindness”, which essentially means the wearer is distracted from their immediate surroundings thanks to the brain reducing its focus on external stimuli.

While the above figure may not seem especially high, it’s worth noting that the study did not take into account accidents that have befallen headphone-wearers listening to music on their mobile phones or smartphone devices.

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