Earbuds, headsets put people at risk

Bells, lights at railroad crossings may not be enough anymore

 UPDATED 10:42 PM CDT May 11, 2012
railroad crossing gate, light

Many parents have told their kids to turn down their headphones or they'll go deaf, but a new study suggests that with the increase in headphone use, they could end up dead.

Today's society is so tuned in, it's tuned out.

Many people are so attached to their headphones or earbuds. Researchers have coined a term for what happens when people are so distracted by what's going on inside they don't know what's going on around them. They call it inattentional blindness, and the results can be deadly.

In 2010, 14-year-old Anna Marie Stickel and her best friend were walking to school along the Amtrak tracks in suburban Baltimore. Stickel was wearing headphones. She never heard the train coming.

"We didn't hear it, and I heard it a split second before she did, and I turned and ran," Stickel's best friend, Sarah Harden, said.

Stickel's death sparked researchers nearby at the University of Maryland to look at similar cases across the country.

They reviewed 116 incidents involving pedestrians wearing headphones, and the results are alarming.

Over a six-year period, headphone-related injuries more than tripled, and 70 percent of them were fatal. Most remarkable, in one-third of cases, the victim failed to hear warning sounds like horns or sirens.

"If you're plugging up your ears from sirens and horns, you're certainly going to put yourself at risk for injury and possibly death," said Dr. Richard Lichenstein of University of Maryland.

Amtrak eventually installed fencing along the route where Stickel was hit.

Closer to home, Wauwatosa is still reeling after a train hit 11-year-old Joey Kramer as he walked to school in February. Surveillance video showed him walking with his hood up, wearing headphones. Though the train horn screamed for his attention, Kramer never looked up.

"We were all very upset and concerned over what happened, and we tried to brainstorm about what actions we could take to possibly mitigate against it happening again," said William Porter of Wauwatosa's Department of Public Works.

Since Kramer's death, Wauwatosa has mounted new signs and installed decals on sidewalks approaching the city's railroad crossings in hopes of alerting distracted walkers and bikers.

"If you're looking down, and you're on your iPad, or mp3 player, or texting you'll look down on the sidewalk," Porter said.

Porter said the city has priced the installation of pedestrian gates at all its crossings, but the price tag exceeds $1 million, and he said the railroads don't think they're effective, so they don't want to pay for them.

"Can you afford not to?" 12 News reporter Colleen Henry asked Porter.

"You have to look at what the council will approve. We have a lot of infrastructure requirements in the city, so it will have to compete with those," Porter said.

Wauwatosa schools are also encouraging kids to just say no to headphones and earbuds through a public safety announcement.

"It's not that it's an unsafe behavior; it's an unsafe environment," emergency medicine specialist Dr. Stephen Hargarten said.

Hargarten said telling kids not to wear headphones is a losing proposition. What needs to change is the environment.

"The environment has cues that were based on 50-100 years ago," Hargarten said.

Railroad crossings warn drivers with lights, bells, signs and gates. Those may not stop a pedestrian wired to chat, text or listen to music.

"The cue is for the car, but there is no cue for the pedestrian," Hargarten said.

Hargarten said communities need to lobby lawmakers to make safety a priority and invest in pedestrian gates.

"We need another cue at that intersection because there's going to be another boy. There's going to be another girl," Hargarten said.

Hargarten believes gates are key, but more importantly, convincing those who develop the distracting devices to equip them with interrupt functions so users can hear warning sirens.

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