Listen Up! Unplug headphones if walking or driving…it could save your life.
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
This week a Boston College student was hit by a mass transit (MBTA) trolley in Massachusetts. By all reports, the trolley operator honked the horn to get the student’s attention but to no avail. The student was solidly connected to his MP3 player and listening to music so loud he couldn’t hear the honking trolley. As a result, he was hit by the trolley and injured.
How often do you see people walking in your area plugged into their MP3 player or phone? How about driving? There is great value to tuning out to music or a good book on tape but the very purpose of tuning out is to distract and that is exactly what we can’t allow to happen when we are walking in public or behind the wheel or a car where our lives and others are in jeopardy if we fade away too far from the task at hand.
It’s important to talk with our kids as soon as they are old enough to use headphones about safe use of the headphones. This BC student’s run in with the T-train is a good lead-off point for just such a discussion. There are health issues to consider - we don’t want our next generation of adults to have hearing loss. But the bigger issue is is volume - with a simple bottom line. We have to not be so tuned out we are not aware of our surroundings. The only way to do that is to make sure the volume being pumped into our ears does not exceed the volume of what is going on outside our heads! And, we have to keep our eyes engaged on the world around us when we are walking…always.
The BC college student should count his lucky stars his injuries were not worse. Hopefully next time he crosses the path of a train or trolley he’ll be completely unplugged and 100% in the moment.
