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Subscribe to RSSAnna Marie Stickel never heard the train coming. The 14-year-old was listening to music on her iPod while walking along the railroad track, taking a shortcut to school after missing the morning bus.
An Amtrak train traveling south along the stretch of track in Maryland's Middle River struck her from behind, instantly killing the high school freshman on Jan. 5, 2010.
Anna's tragic story sparked a national study examining the dangers associated with pedestrian use of headphones, according to Dr. Richard Lichenstein, director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Research at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore. She was among 116 cases studied.
The findings: Wearing headphones while walking on roads can be a fatal distraction.
The number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of not being aware of their surroundings because they were wearing headphones has tripled in the past six years, Lichenstein said.
Results were published Tuesday in the journal Injury Prevention. The study found:
- The number of deaths of people wearing headphones increased from 16 in 2004-2005 to 47 in 2010-2011.
- The majority were male (68 percent) and 67 percent were under the age of 30.
- The majority of vehicles involved were trains (55 percent).
- 89 percent of cases occurred in urban counties.
Lichenstein and three researchers delved into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google News Archives and Westlaw Campus Research Database from Jan. 1, 2004 to June 1, 2011.
"Sensory deprivation that results from using headphones with electronic devices may be a unique problem in pedestrian incidents, where auditory cues can be more important than visual ones,” the study cited.
Click here to read the original article (pdf)
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Whether you are walking or driving, being able to hear is important. It may not be necessary to take them, although I would, but turn down the volume. It is too sad when someone dies like this.
I'll tell you what really worries me - I was almost hit by a hybrid car in a parking lot - they came around the corner, and I never heard them. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye and jumped away. There is such a thing as too quiet.
Drivers of hybrid cars should be aware that bicyclists and pedestrians who aren't looking directly at them could easily stray into their path if the driver doesn't make his presence known in advance.
I drive a Prius, and I always tap my horn when I approach a bicyclist or a jogger going in the same direction as I am. You always have to be aware of things that could cut into your path and get killed without ever seeing or hearing what hit them.
The same logic applies when passing a car from its blind spot. If they can't see you, they don't know where NOT to go.
Hybrids are being required to emit a noise now at low speeds due to exactly that...but it's because of blind individuals who can't hear Hybrids at lights and intersections.
Also, this article fails to bring up crime with regards to people with headphones on now who are completely oblivious to their surroundings. These individuals are a perfect target for a street crime. The Washington Post did a write-up on exactly this and the increase in crime in those individuals who had headphones on or who were too submerged in their smart phone.
Seriously people...take your head out of your phone and pay attention around you. Nothing is that important that you cant wait till later to reply unless it's an emergency. Otherwise your facebook/social site can wait to be updated...
remember when people were told to look both ways. Right, left, then Right. I feel worse for the train driver. People get out of your it is someone else's fault mind set. We have had head phones for 30 years on walkmens
We actually did a few commercials for a group called Operation Life Saver...it's a organization that promotes train crossing safety...we did these 3...you'd be surprised at how distracted most people are now-a-days with their stupid smart phones.
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-pedestrian-psa
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-driving-psa-humorous
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-driving-psa-serious
sorry but 47 people in one year, that's 300,000,000 in the USA divided buy 47 not a bad % at all, more people die in the shower a lot more so what's the problem.
I'm just saying
Well, the obvious action to take is to ban trains. Just ask the gun control freaks
Cheap shots at anal retentive megalomaniacs aside, we just can't make a fool proof world. Some fool will always prove your measures weren't fool proof. In fact, I personally think attempts to do so have resulted in borderline fools being lulled into worse foolishness. It's like the idiot who thinks a steel beam falling on his head won't kill him because he has a hard hat on.
in case any one wants to know over 56,000 people die in the shower Evey year. sooooo....what ban showers to the moral of the story is to protect your children teach them safety!!!!
I would agree, about 100 to 200 people every year fall from ladders or off there houses while putting up Christmas lights.
I was lucky, I stopped wearing earphones after a close call in traffic. I can see how much danger I was in.
It is not just the wearing of headphones that creates the problem, it is the fact that many younger people crank up the volume so loud that they can not hear anything else. If you have the volume so loud that you do not hear a car horn honking then you either need to turn down the volume or take off the headphones. Being able to hear what is going on around you is a major safety factor that should not be ignored. Of course you also have the permanent damage that young people are doing to their hearing by listening to music at these excessive volumes.
@wade-3708300 - now tell me how many of those deaths are actually CAUSED by the shower? The location doesn't matter in the big picture if the cause of death is say, a heart attack.
it's just Darwinism at work.
Oh come on! Really? We've been living with portable headphones since the late 70s/early 80s when the Sony Walkman first came out. Even without them, I remember walking around with a portable boom box perched on my shoulder blaring Quiet Riot and AC/DC loud enough to hear in the next county, and I never once wandered into traffic. This is just Mother Nature's way of culling the stupidest of us from the herd. As far as I'm concerned, if you are hit by a train, you don't deserve to live. Doesn't matter if you can hear it coming or not. I live next to some train tracks, and I can FEEL the trains coming through the soles of my feet long before I can hear them. What are we supposed to do, wrap ourselves from head-to-toe in bubble wrap and put on safety helmets just to walk outside? Spare me the "if it saves just one life, it's worth it" crap. It's a dangerous world. Deal with it.
This is a good thing. People this stupid should be out of the gene pool.
I certainly don't want to be one of the drivers to clean up the gene pool for you!
Ryan the statistic is sower related deaths heart attacks and deaths cased by other things are not included
Hearing along with vision is the major way in which we navigate ourselves in our daily lives when driving, walking, waiting at a train or bus station. Its sort of sad that this article has to state the obvious. Despite laws in our state against it I still see people all the time in their cars yammering away on their cellphones in heavy traffic. Sadly I don't think articles like this are going to go away nor are the sad statistics that go along with them
You know what scares me, Nanny State, some left wing waco making a law to stop people from wearing ear phones Ipods ect... out side your own home.
The hard hat isn't there to protect you from a 10-ton steel I-beam, it's to protect your head from a one pound steel crescent wrench falling from the fourth floor. It isn't a 100% effective save-everybody-from-everything safety device, but it could be the difference between a headache and a concussion or a fractured skull. I've seen some really strange accidents happen on construction sites, thankfully none of them fatal.
On military bases, it's against the rules to wear earphones while jogging along the road for exactly this reason.
@JS in SD
Thank you! Finally someone mentions the volume. I've heard some teens listening to their iPods/Phones/MP3 players/etc. at the highest volume it could possibly get to. Not to mention some teens get too into their music and start "dancing" (Or flailing about as it usually amounts to) and when they can't hear and/or are too busy holding the crotch of their pants to keep them up, they never pay attention to anything unless you peg 'em with a pebble. I listen to music on my phone all the time, I keep it at a volume where I can still hear things, but I also compensate for my hearing by getting off the road if I can, or turning around to see what's around me every so often.
It's not completely that X (In this case, wearing headphones and listening to music) is the cause of Y (Accidents), it's moreso that while doing/wearing X people then tend to not use common sense and be more careful which can lead to Y.
GOOD GOD!!!!!
DUH!
I wonder how many millions this brilliant study cost us.
Volume is irrelevent with the kind of earphones I have. They fit inside the pinae, and impair my ability to hear anything besides what I am listening too at a reasonable volume. I had to be alerted to a backing truck that could have turned me into road kill. That is when I stopped listening to my audiobooks with earphones. Now I use the built in speaker on my andriod cell phone. That I hear what's is going on around me is vital to my survival.
I would like to see the use of earphones anywhere, but a jogging trail in a park, outside made a minor misdemeanor like J walking is in the state of Florida. There is such a thing as too much freedom where it comes to traffic.
wade-3708300
sorry but 47 people in one year, that's 300,000,000 in the USA divided buy 47 not a bad % at all, more people die in the shower a lot more so what's the problem.
I'm just saying.
Wade, it is a minor statistic unless the victim is related to you. For the relatives of the deceased the death can be anything but minor.
Another protip: Walk AGAINST traffic, so you can see what's coming. I realize the majority of deaths involved trains, but many had to be car accidents as well.
As a kid we always rode our bikes against traffic...better to see a car coming then not and for them to see you coming.
Seen way too many people get nailed going with traffic. I think it's one of the worst ideas/laws ever made.
Actually, riding a bike opposite traffic is against the law, at least in CA. You can be cited just as if you were driving an automobile on the wrong side of the street. I don't know personally of anyone actually being cited or any police officer that has cited someone, but, according to the CA-DMV, it is illegal!
As far as head phones and ear pods go, I think you have to use your common sense. I walk 10 miles a day with my ear pods, but I walk on the sidewalk. I guess that is not 100% safe either. You definitely cannot hear what is going on behind you. Someone could walk up behind me and I wouldn't know! Sure takes all the fun out of exercising!
On city streets and highways, you're supposed to bike WITH traffic, on the right side of the road, and obey all the same traffic laws as if you're driving a car. Wear a helmet and use bike lights and reflectors.
If you're a little kid on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac, with your training wheels on, you're probably riding all over it.
I'm not aware of any state that encourages its bikes ride on the left side of the road, unless you're a kid on the sidewalk. A car driver at an intersection or coming out of a driveway looks to the right to see if there is another vehicle coming. In countries where cars drive on the left side, the bicyclists ride on the left.
Definitely walk AGAINST traffic, and wear bright clothing.
You'd better be on the left in the USVI, hehe....Life in the Left Lane down here. Yes, bike riding has always been WITH the flow of traffic while walking has always supposed to have been against traffic when NO SIDEWALKS are available. Today's electronics are even worse than the early Walkman days. iPods, MP3 players, smart phones, etc. have all become such distractions that it is no longer safe walking or driving. I've had people walk right into me because they were too distracted by their electronic devices. And it is very discourteous to be on the phone with your earpiece at the same time that you are conducting other business. That is why more and more businesses are banning cell phone usage (PO's, banks, many offices, and retailers). Keep your one-sided conversations to yourself or tell the person on the other end that you will call them back.....after you conduct the business at hand.
The other problem is that people have the volume up so loud on those earphones that they have drowned out all other sounds, along with the total distraction. That volume is very bad for the health of your hearing. You will be going deaf much quicker. The same for the over-powered speaker systems in your vehicles that everyone else can feel, no just hear, ten blocks away. Protect your own life and the lives of others. Stop the distractions. You really don't need to be "connected" 24/7 to the electronic age.
Riding a bike against traffic is not only against the law but very dangerous. When I come to a bike doing that and there is a car coming in the other direction there is no way I can get over for the bike so I just keep going and the bike is usually forced into the curb or grass. Also when making a right hand turn I do not look to the right for oncoming traffic...there should not be any...I look to the left and when there is a break I go. More than once have I came close to hitting a biker because they do not have the common sense to realize they are on the wrong side of the road and it might be a good idea to stop and wait in that situation...and yes I asked what would happen if one ever got hit and they would be held at fault since they were breaking the law.
Does anyone remember, "Right is right when you ride your bike" ?
@dslodge:
Look to the right not just for traffic but for pedestrians too.
How about the good old looking both ways before crossing. That always worked well in the past. No one seems to do it anymore. Around my city, you have to try your hardest not to hit the pedestrians because they are literally walking in front of your car when you have the green.
HEARING and LOOKING would help. Trains, cars, and buses are big, fast, and they do not forgive when they hit you.
55% of the deaths were by trains. Here's a novel thought: don't walk on train tracks!
Natural selection at work, I mean I do feel sorry for those that died but geez, a little common sense goes a long way here.
"let me walk on a train track while removing a major way of knowing if a train is coming, that sounds logical"
Lots of these are at crossings, especially inner city crossings where pedestrians cross the tracks on the road level.
We actually did a few commercials for these guys...under the videos section...we did the 2 distracted drivers PSAs. The first will show you exactly how people can easily get killed by a train.
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-pedestrian-psa
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-driving-psa-humorous
http://oli.org/video/view/distracted-driving-psa-serious
Yea, I would think trains would be pretty easy to avoid. Unless you come across one of those pesky track jumpers.
Stupid is as stupid does, a lot of stupid people in this world.
There were a lot more ,at some point,apparently.
HUH...WHAT....
I'm surprised the girl couldn't sense the train coming from the railroad bed's vibrations. She may not have heard the train, but how could you not feel something like a 500-ton railroad train bearing down on you when it's rumbling on the very tracks you're walking on???
On the macro topic, I'd say more people are probably killed crossing streets in countries that drive on the opposite side of the road from their own. Awake, alert, and sober, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life was to get used to cars in Hong Kong driving on the right.
Same inThailand also I think the Thai drivers got hi marks for taking out a roundeye,HA HA
This conclusion required a study??????
I find mike277's conclusion @ #14 much more useful, as it applies to a broader spectrum of situations.
How can someone not FEEL a train coming up on them? Those things are several hundred tons and that whistle is fairly loud. Are there ninja trains that I don't know about? I'm scared now.
Stealth trains...
I'm very sorry to hear this. I"m very sorry for the family and her friends. But seriously. Its about having common sense. You are on a track, assume a train will come eventually. I ride my bike home from work everyday. I have head phones. And I rock out. Yerrrrrrrp. But seriously I'm so aware of my surroundings when I"m rocking out. It's just common sens. I drive and avoid accidents at least 2 to 5 times a week maybe more. there are some terrible drivers out there. I live in Los Angeles. Cuz of other peeps. You just have to be aware. I can see how you can get distracted. But cereally. Again I'm very sorry to her family and her loved ones. But people. Just assume the worst and avoid.
Um, person who misspelled "Religion" -- can you elaborate a bit on what you meant by "But cerally." Are you talking about Cheerios, Kix, Total - like those; or are you talking the sugary crap like Frosted Flakes, Sugar Pops, and Captain Crunch?
Warren S. Levine
Was that comment really necessary? Perhaps English is a second language for Relligion Kills
they prolly meant....never mind......
Yeah, guy is just using his 'common sens' in the spelling department.
Too bad the button for spell check eludes so many people. It's right there on the header as you type your comments. As for the possibility of English being a second language to this person, I'd like to point out that only two words were misspelled in his entire post, including his screen name. It's far more likely he's intentionally misspelling them to try to sound more "street" or "urban", or a lame attempt at humor. Too bad, with all the unemployed professional comedians out there...
He lives in a foreign country,so why would English even be his 4th or 5th language for that matter?
10:1 she was listening to some Rap Crap..
Must have been. If she'd been listening to rock or country or even classical, she'd still be alive today because....y'know...
Another disturbing trend: women being abducted while talking on a cell phone. Technology seems to be helping us regress as a species rather than evolve. Wake up, grow up, and be aware of your surroundings. Folks who need constant entertainment and stimulation are atrophying their brains and reducing their social skills. We need to behave more like full-on human beings or face the failure of the species and society. Yes, I am being completely serious. Humans have (had) evolved to higher and higher levels of thinking; now we are on the slippery slope back down.
sadly, I have to agree.
Darwin was right!
Uh, let's see. The bozo's in D.C. will be trying to pass a law to protect the stupid from themselves.
Good luck!
The government paid for this nonsensical study?!?! Maybe we need to put our government on a serious tax diet, so they will stop funding all this nation-building garbage and these loser studies!
It's called "thinning the herd". If you can't be bothered to be aware of your surroundings, then this is the end result. Technology does not, in fact, make us smarter, it just makes us do mundane things quickly and almost always, carelessly.
BINGO! Exactly the point I was trying to make in my comments back up at #1.14. Technology will never replace common sense, and it will never be able to protect us from being stupid.
Amazing and sad that it took government agencies and "think tank" geniuses to come up with somethin' common sense should have dictated long ago. Gotta love those over paid college grad fools who waste our money to tell us what we already(should) know, and to protect us from ourselves. Even worse that some "news" outlet thought it was worth the time to make this a story just in case some were too stupid to know already. I'm waiting on the next story to be about how wearin' a pair of socks in the winter could keep your feet warmer!, or to beware that takin' a bath would actually get you wet!! Film at 11
I see these dip@!$%#s all the time walking around self-absorbed oblivious to anything and every thing around them ! They deserve it ! Survival of the fittest I say ! You do not see the deaf getting killed like this ! They see better than the dip@!$%#s do ! Not only that but they DRIVE better too !
She probably had the volume really loud. How can you not hear a train coming? I confess. I don't have a car, so while I walk to my destination I hear some music. But I make sure that the volume is low enough so I can hear the music but can be aware of my surroundings. And duh! I always look both ways before crossing. Very sad, but as someone here wrote "natural selection at work".
if a person is in that special gene pool that makes one actually feel comfortable walking on train tracks with a walkman or mp3 plugged into their head, the only thought would probably be how fantastic the base was working, for the last 30 seconds.
Education is key, pedestrians without headphones get hit all the time.
...usually when doing something stupid, like jaywalking. when steel meets flesh and bone, flesh loses 100% of the time.
The girl in the opening paragraph was walking on railroad tracks. Don't you just love logical reporting.
Dumb fkrs!!!
Headphones or no headphones, these are the same people who have no awareness of their surroundings and do not anticipate hazards. We had a few inches of snow this weekend, and you would not believe how many people walked on edge of the road to avoid having to walk in the snow on the sidewalks. Cars were zipping by these idiots and missing them by inches. What happens if a car slides on the ice or snow? These people amazed me.
Yeah, but it only kills the stupid ones. No big loss.
someguy600 you are absolutely correct , we had head phones years ago we were told to always look befor you cross anything even the side walk, its like people are preoccupied with too many other things . We cant blame a train for not pulling over nor a semi for not stopping as fast as we want them to. The girl could have been listening to a song with train whistles on it and never heard the real one. I've had the crap scared out of me not paying attention to some thing passing me until I seen them.
My condolence goes out to the family of the girl and the engineer of the train, I,m sadden that there lives came together like this but hope its for a good cause..
"yeah, but it only kills the stupid ones. No big loss" What the heck? Who are you? This is a tragedy.
Who am I? Someone who wants the idiots removed from the gene pool. If you can't use headphones and walk around outdoors, you're wasting space, oxygen, and foodstuffs.