Did You Know: Wearing Headphones Can Increase Your Chances Of DYING???

pedestrian headphones
Read and take heed cuz we would hate for those Beats’ to be the death of you.
An alarming new study finds that traffic deaths and serious accidents among headphone-wearing pedestrians have tripled in the past six years.
Of 116 headphone-injury cases studied by researchers at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children, more than one third of victims were under 18 and two-thirds were younger than 30 and lived in urban areas.
“I listen mostly to classic rock and I like it loud — it’s very doubtful that I’d hear anything at all with them on,” said Nick Nerio, 29, of Astoria, Queens.
According to the study, the number of headphone-related accidents increased from 16 in 2004 and 2005 to 47 in 2010 and 2011.
Locally since 2005, there have been five deaths of headphone-wearing pedestrians or bikers.

Last June, Stuyvesant HS student Aileen Chen, 16, was fatally struck by a BMW as she was pedaling against the light wearing headphones and without a helmet.
And on Long Island in June, headphone-wearing jogger Salem Enayetullah, 22, was killed by a hit-run driver on Hempstead Turnpike.
“That’s really scary. A lot of my friends won’t wear them when they’re out walking or biking but obviously I’m not as smart as them,” joked Sarah Parker, 22, crossing at 72nd Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side while listening to music.
“I try to just wear them in the subway but a lot of the time I forget. I’ll definitely be more careful from now on,” she told The Post.
Upper West Sider Ed Stelz, 27, was spotted being half-cautious, wearing just one earbud.
“I think a lot of people are just stupid — they pay no attention to their surroundings. It’s just a recipe for disaster,” he said.
Lead researcher Richard Lichenstein called the use of earbuds in high-traffic areas “inattentional blindness.”
“That’s awful,” said Gianmarco Soresi, 23, who was crossing the street wearing large, noise-cancelling earphones and grooving to the music.
“I can’t hear anything else with these on — nothing. I got them just for that purpose, which is probably all the more dangerous.”
Time to snap out of it folks… Pay attention to your surroundings. Life is precious.

No comments: