Deaf and Dumb

Wearing headphones in public and blasting one's music loud enough that the sound reaches beyond your ears so that others can hear your horrible taste in music is not a new phenomenon, but the amount of pedestrians wearing headphones being killed due to their inattentiveness is.

Thanks to the marketplace dominance and popularity of the iPod, popping in a pair of ear buds and shutting out the rest of the world has become all too easy and common for many pedestrians. This has led to a growing number of unaware individuals that end up being injured or killed by a passing motor vehicle, or train, because some Rihanna song blasting in their ears was so distracting that it was impossible to remember to keep one's eyes open.

The online British journal, Injury Prevention, recently completed a study on headphone use and pedestrian injury and death in the U.S. between the years of 2004-2011. The study found the number of pedestrians severely injured or killed tripled over just the last six years and grew from 16 total cases in 2004 to 116 last year.

Covering iPods, other mp3 players, and miscellaneous musical devices (guess some were hipsters using a Walkman), the study showed that 68% of pedestrians involved were male, 67% were under the age of 30, and 55% were struck by a train. 29% of the cases reported a warning was definitely sounded (car/train horn) before the crash.

I can understand if one doesn't hear a blaring horn due to some asinine rap song that was being pumped into their brain, because I myself even have a hard time hearing police sirens over my car's stereo when driving. But I find it hard to comprehend how a pedestrian, with headphones on, can't feel the ground rumblings of an oncoming train or even see it barreling down towards them. Trains are not small, light traveling objects; just because your ears are preoccupied doesn't mean your eyes are too.

My conclusion after reading the conclusion of this study is that thanks to portable music devices, the average pedestrian is becoming stupider and more inattentive than ever. In my opinion, it takes a special kind of headphone-wearing moron to not pay attention with their eyes and look both ways when crossing a street or set of train tracks. Shit, if a naturally-born deaf person can navigate crossing streets safely, then there is no reason why others wearing headphones can't do the same.

I would love to see this study expanded into researching the IQ level of the pedestrians involved in these incidents and to explore this hypothesis; is constantly wearing headphones making pedestrians more stupid?

Yes. That, and attempting to contemplate the deep lyrical content of a LMFAO song while walking to work.