Headphone-Related Deaths Increasing in the US, Study Finds

Posted on Jan 17th 2012 3:07PM by Theo Spielberg
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Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images

According to a newly published study, the number of pedestrians in the United States who have been killed or severely injured while wearing headphones has apparently tripled in the last six years. We know what you're probably thinking: Maybe cars just need louder horns.

Perplexingly, more than half of these incidents involved pedestrians being run over by trains and "Two-thirds of the victims were males and under the age of 30." In response to this shocking inattentiveness, government officials reportedly suggested that dudes stop wearing their headphones as blindfolds.

The annual death toll rose from 16 in 2004 to 47 in 2011, with a grand total of 116 deaths over the entirety of the period. The research was published in the British journal Injury Prevention, and was led by Richard Lichenstein of the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore.

Watch SNL's 'Headz Up App'

Watch 'How to Choose Headphones'

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