MP3 players and the headphones needed to hear the music are involved in some Pennsylvania wrongful death events. These earphones, blocking out other sounds, are apparently accentuating the surrounding distractions and contributing to fatalities of persons on or near railroad tracks.

Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit organization focused on railroad safety education. They believe that pedestrians walking near railroad tracks apparently feel a false sense of safety, even when their earbuds are firmly seated in their ears. To support the contention of danger that MP3 earphones and earbuds present, the Federal Railroad Administration reports that 42 people lost their lives along railroad tracks in Pennsylvania in 2010.

Pennsylvania may be more susceptible to wrongful death in this fashion as the state has over 5,000 miles of track. However, the “earphone” debate will continue as the Federal Railroad Administration admits that fatality data is not stratified to display whether pedestrians were or were not using MP3 players with earphones.

In October 2010, investigators did find an iPod near the body of a teenager fatally hit by an Amtrak train near tracks in Edgewood. Eye witnesses confirmed that the conductor blasted the train’s horn a few times, but the young man never acknowledged hearing the sound. In another incident, a 15-year old female teenager was struck and killed in South Huntington in December 2010 while listening to her MP3 player accompanied by her earbuds. Often walking near the tracks for exercise, she was apparently either too comfortable or too distracted to hear the oncoming railroad train.

Source: Tribune-Review, “Earphones are cited in many railroad deaths,” Stacey Federoff, Dec. 5, 2011