In the past six years, the numbers of pedestrians in the United States that have been badly injured or killed while wearing headphones have tripled. In 2004, the number was only sixteen but by 2011, it has gone up to forty-seven. During this entire period of seven years there were a total of one hundred sixteen incidents. Two-thirds of these incidents involved people who were under the age of thirty and were males.

Although it may seem hard to believe but over half of these incidents were people who were hit by trains. Yes trains, not cars as most people would think because of all the runners, walkers, and joggers who wear headphones to listen to music while doing these types of exercises.

The research paper calls these incidents “inattentional blindness.” They call it this because when people are wearing headphones to listen to music, books, etc, they are distracted, which helps to lower the resources that the brain devotes to external stimulation.

This study did not include mobile phones but only MP23 players, iPods, and other devices that play music. Yes, it can be boring to exercise without music but you still need to be aware of your surroundings when you are running, jogging, or even walking, especially if you are doing these exercises in areas where there is traffic. Use designated areas if possible to do these exercises to be even safer.