Pedestrian Headphone Use Linked To Injuries, Death

We hear a lot about distracted driving, but researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center say distracted walking is pretty dangerous too.

With the proliferation of iPods and smartphones than can access music services, pedestrians often walk around with ear buds plugged into their ears, and therefore can't hear trains, buses, trucks and cars around them.

Serious injuries to pedestrians listening to headphones have more than tripled in six years, according to their research. In many cases, the cars or trains are sounding horns that the pedestrians cannot hear, leading to fatalities in nearly three-quarters of cases.

“Everybody is aware of the risk of cell phones and texting in automobiles, but I see more and more teens distracted with the latest devices and headphones in their ears,” said lead author Richard Lichenstein, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of pediatric emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “Unfortunately as we make more and more enticing devices, the risk of injury from distraction and blocking out other sounds increases.”

The researchers looked at 116 accident cases from 2004 to 2011 in which injured pedestrians were found to be using headphones. Seventy percent of the 116 accidents resulted in death to the pedestrian.

Mostly male

More than two-thirds of victims were male and under the age of 30. More than half of the moving vehicles involved in the accidents were trains, and nearly a third of the vehicles reported sounding some type of warning horn prior to the crash. The increased incidence of accidents over the years closely corresponds to documented rising popularity of auditory technologies with headphones.

The researchers say two things are at work here. First, the sound coming from the earphones drown out surrounding environmental noise, which is helpful for avoiding collisions.

Second, prolonged use of the headphones can result in sensory deprivation. The distraction caused by the use of electronic devices has been coined “inattentional blindness,” in which multiple stimuli divide the brain’s mental resource allocation.

In cases of headphone-wearing pedestrian collisions with vehicles, the distraction is intensified by sensory deprivation, in which the pedestrian’s ability to hear a train or car warning signal is masked by the sounds produced by the portable electronic device and headphones.

Lichenstein says parents of teens and young adults should be aware of the potential risk of wearing headphones where moving vehicles are present.