The Train Will Win
Take Those Things Out of Your Ears
When I was a teen-ager being high tech meant that you owned a pocket-sized transistor radio. They were slightly larger than a cigarette pack and most were AM. The really high end radios were AM-FM. There was a small bi-metal earplug on a very thin cord which allowed you to listen without disturbing others. The sound quality was atrocious with plenty of static. Stereo earplugs were almost unheard of and headphones were not in general use.
Noise canceling? Hah! Because it only went in one ear you could still hear the environmental noises, such as train whistles and car horns.
Now noise canceling stereo earbuds and headphones are in common use. I use them on the train, in my office and working out. I do not use them when I’m walking, jogging or riding my bike. Never mind driving. They are a distinct improvement over the old-fashioned earplugs. They have one major down side and that is that they exclude the environmental noises, such as train whistles and car horns.
Before they were standardized many railroad crossing signs said ‘Stop Look and Listen’. OPERATION LIFESAVER now uses ‘Look Listen Live’. Very sound advice when you’re out walking, jogging or driving, however it begs the question, How do you listen for the sound of a train whistle or anything else for that matter when you are using a device which blocks out the environmental noises?
The answer is you don’t.
Deaths and injuries secondary to the use of earbuds and headphones have become an epidemic. Whenever I see a report of a pedestrian struck by a train, be it at a crossing or along the track, I first look at location, age, and gender. Then I look for certain words and phrases. These include references to drugs, alcohol, homelessness, et c. What I now see with increasing, make that alarming, frequency are references to headphones, earbuds, ‘walking with head down’, ‘listening to music/radio’, and ‘talking/texting on cell phone’. The anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of these instances involve people of high school and immediate post-high school age.
A Google News search using the key words train, hit, and headphones, even after screening for duplicates, will bring up several instances within the last three months. Some were fatal. Some were grievous injury, the loss of one or both legs.
A perusal of the Federal Railroad Administration Safety Database shows a 36.6 percent increase in trespasser casualties in the age range of 16 through 20 between 2015 and 2016 while the overall increase for all age groups was less than half that, 14.5 percent. By comparison the two adjacent age ranges, 11-15 and 21-25 both dropped 5.9 percent. The 16 - 20 age group also had the highest number of casualties, 112 out of 862 or 13 percent of the total incidents where age was reported.
There is a solution which should be simple and quick to implement. It does not require studies, funding and programs. It comes right out of Operation Lifesaver’s standard presentation and almost every pedestrian and driver safety course out there. Do it and have your kids do it also. There are two steps. When you are out on the road (or sidewalk or trail): 1. Put the phone down; 2. Take those things out of your ears. Please. Now.
Michael Allen March 21,2017