You love your music and you splash out on buying those awesome noise-cancelling headphones, so that you can have your fun while
you are running to burn those pesky calories. But here is the catch, the same headphones may lead to injuries, which in some cases may be fatal. According to a latest report released by the University of Maryland, the number of pedestrian' injuries due to wearing headphones trebled during the last six years. The study has been conducted in collaboration with University of Maryland Medical Center.
The main reason behind such accidents is the inability of pedestrian to hear the blaring horn sounds made by vehicles. Richard Lichenstein, MD and the lead author of report said, "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.” Use of headphones for listening to music also leads to distractions, which may result in accidents.
The report studied the accidents occurred between 2004 and 2011. All the included cases involved pedestrians wearing headphones. The report also states that 68 percent of the victims were male. Younger people are also more susceptible as under 30s made up 67 percent of such cases. So, if your jogging route is traffic intensive or has rail tracks, then it is better to be on the safer side and leave your headphones at home.