Accidents due to listening to music

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  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Luckily it's only the non serious back of pack runners who wear headfones in races image

    (tiptoes away quietly)

  • The simple fact is that iPod-wearing runners don't cause problems - inconsiderate runners cause problems, and many of those are running without music.
  • Stevie G                                                                   . wrote (see)

    Luckily it's only the non serious back of pack runners who wear headfones in races image

    (tiptoes away quietly)


    <considers making usual comment about difficulty overtaking zombie iPlodders on lapped courses with narrow pavements but CNBA>

    imageimage

  • 'The simple fact is that iPod-wearing runners don't cause problems - inconsiderate runners cause problems, and many of those are running without music.'

    I largely agree with this. I think that music can enhance an already existing problem (lack of consideration), but is by no means solely to blame. Mind you, I doubt many would claim that music is exclusively to blame for all ipod-related accidents! Jennn's post is a good summary of how it should be done when running with music, I reckon.
  • Re SG...

    When I ran my HM PB I was in the top 2% of finishers (and ahead of the first lady) yet I still overtook a joker running down the middle of the road with half a mile of tooting cars behind him.

    Didn't cause me a problem, but I remember it very well because he was the big showoff at school who won the annual cross country every year.

    Of course, "top 2%" isn't remotely competitive, but for the first lady finisher, said joker did not represent a "non serious back of pack runner". The clowns do infect all sections of the race.

    I love a good iPod thread!
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Stats are a funny think Artie.  For instance, I came top 2.4% in a half marathon with 7500 runners, yet only top 16% in a 4miler the next year.

    And of course my comment was tongue in cheek, as I actually lost my proud record of not losing to someone wearing headfones at a 10miler in October this year....he did smack a 57 though, which is alright!

    At least you beat the show off....there's something amazingly satisfying about the tables being turned from school...the kids who beat me back then (ie everyone), are now bloated non running boozy layabouts

    Also I've heard they use ipods in races image

  • Absolutely! I did consider what to say to him as he limped over the line. "Oh well done" in as patronising a voice as possible came to mind, but I elected for the shower and the moral high ground instead.
  • PiersPiers ✭✭✭

    Whilst it can never be proved behind doubt a runner local to me died and at the time it was considered that her MP3 player impeeded her situational awareness.

    Tragic loss of life.

    BBC Obituary

  • It does make me wonder how the Hell we all manage to drive with radios/CDs in the car.  Maybe they should be banned, too?  And, before a queue forms consisting of people who would ban them, consider that we would also have to gag children, too!!!  iPods/MP3 players do NOT cause accidents.  It's the misuse of them that does.  It's rather like saying speed kills.  Wrong.  Inappropriate driving kills.  But some people will always look for mitigating circumstances.
  • Polly-Polly wrote (see)
    It does make me wonder how the Hell we all manage to drive with radios/CDs in the car.  Maybe they should be banned, too?  And, before a queue forms consisting of people who would ban them, consider that we would also have to gag children, too!!!  iPods/MP3 players do NOT cause accidents.  It's the misuse of them that does.  It's rather like saying speed kills.  Wrong.  Inappropriate driving kills.  But some people will always look for mitigating circumstances.
    *This*!!
  • Racing drivers dont have mp3 players.

    Road cars have wing mirrors, lane markings and traffic lights to help them. You don't have any of these running a race ?
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭
    Polly-Polly wrote (see)
    It does make me wonder how the Hell we all manage to drive with radios/CDs in the car.  Maybe they should be banned, too?  And, before a queue forms consisting of people who would ban them, consider that we would also have to gag children, too!!!  iPods/MP3 players do NOT cause accidents.  It's the misuse of them that does.  It's rather like saying speed kills.  Wrong.  Inappropriate driving kills.  But some people will always look for mitigating circumstances.


    surely speeding is inappropriate drving, as the limit is there for a reason.

  • oiyouoiyou ✭✭✭

    And speed does kill.

    It may or may not be the cause of many accidents, but it sure affects the outcome.

  • Speed kills? Where does this come from? there is no evidence or research that supports this.

    Speed does not kill. Speed does not effect the outcome of injury in accidents. What does is how and where a person is hit or physically injured. Speed plays no part in this.

    There has been extensive study to support this.

    A driver driving at 40 mph is 4x more situationally aware than a driver driving at 20mph. A driver driving at 80 mph is 4x more situationally aware than a driver driving at 40 mph.  Double the speed, square the acuity. The human brain does this. More accidents occur at lower speeds because drivers are less aware.

    More accidents happen as a result of drivers driving too slowly than drivers driving too fast.

  • What's the point in being 4x more situationally aware - reaction time fractions of a second - if it takes you 3x as long - actual time rather more fractions of a second = still travelling upon impact - to do an emergency stop?  Should I drive around in residential zones at 80mph then?
  • oiyouoiyou ✭✭✭

    Surely a low speed accident is less likely to kill than a high speed one. Double the speed, square the energy.
    Otherwise would there not be a very high minimum speed limit?

    Anyway, it looks like this thread has been hi-jacked & I think I'm off-topic here.

  • gingerbread mouse wrote (see)

    Speed does not effect the outcome of injury in accidents. What does is how and where a person is hit or physically injured. Speed plays no part in this.

    Let's be specific here.  You are referencing accidents that actually happen. Even if what you're saying is true, you're completely ignoring countless situations where accidents don't happen but would have been more likely if someone had been driving more quickly.  If I'm driving in a residential zone and a child runs out between two parked cars thirty feet in front of me, I will have time to react if I'm driving 20mph.  I won't if I'm doing 80.  That's pure physics.  Speed kills.
  • GM - how can driving too slowly cause more accidents than driving too fast ?
    If I go round a corner at say 20mph and the attempt the same corner at 80mph
    - which one would you say was going to give me problems ?

    Or are you talking of slow speed parking bumps ? Which are usually just bodywork damage without fatalities ?
  • Back to this point about accidents with headphones. I listen to music all the time when training, but never at all on race day. I just love to hear the crowds, the other people around me, so music is just something i dont need. But while training. I have never had an accident with headphones, mostly because i am street smart. You look around you, whats going on. Approach a road turning, your senses become heightened. You have this 1000 yard stare. I nearly got hit by a car pulling out of his driveway, but that was him not paying attention, and could easily have happened, if i didnt have headphones on.

    Bottom line, you run with headphones, you do it carefully. When i do an organised run and see other people with headphones on, i dont stear clear of them, but experience shapes you, so if i had a bad experience with someone, then i probably would. I always find, that if you get your right place in the crowd, then people with headphones dont become a problem anyway.

    Actually my closest accident to date on an organised run was a guy who didnt have headphones, and dropped his plastic water bottle deliberately and i had to do my Mario Donkey Kong to avoid it, and the 20 others behind me.

  • I have been tripped up by a runner wearing an ipod during a race. I was trying to pass them to the right and just as I was taking a step he stepped to the right result me on the floor. I was doing all the correct stuff giving him space but it was on a narrow trail image

    I have also experienced an ipod wearer spitting on my shoe nice as he was not aware I was just to one side behind him, it was a busy race

  • I'm with ghostrunner on this one, I train with an MP3 and increase my situational awareness and as much as I can look far in advance and try to predict events as of course you can slow down or stop as one of the avoiding actions.

    Now a race in my opinion is a different environment, I am trying to get the best time I can which means I rely more on race officials and to wear an MP3 not only distracts me generally but reduces my senses that I need when running at speed, and I have in the past shouted track or some other alert when I am coming up behind them at pace, they tend to move over but on one occassion the unfortunate person who was wearing a headphone did get an unceremonious glancing shoulder barge when I went past as he was drifting around side to side and I had to make a decision which side to go and he decided to move back into my path at the last moment.

  • I sometimes train wth music this generally on longer runs. I concentrate more in terms of looking around me and slowing for junctions and if possible looking at junctions and anticipating what is happening just like I would when driving.

     A couple of tales though at a slightly OT. I once worked in a gym and the plant room was upstairs next to the gym and something in there went and smoke started coming out. Normally if the fire alarm goes trying to move the members out was like trying to predict the lottery numbers; almost impossible. On this occasion almost everyone went straight to the fire exits. Apart from those with headphones who were on the treadmill obviously didn't hear the fire alarm, nor saw or smelt the smoke coming from the plant room next to them!

    The other one (I don't think I was using headphones) was whilst I was riding my bike in York, for those of you who know York it was just past the train station at the junction with Windmill pub. I was in the cycle lane and there was this bus. Something told me beware and so I stopped where I was lucky I did as the bus came into the cycle lane right where I would have been.

    Moral of the story be wary of the things around you as other people are stupid and will cause you the injury.

  • @rowrex - you were overtaking, you were at the back, you were in error.
  • I had a bit of a bad fall this morning whilst running wearing headphones - but I think it was more to do with a dodgy paving stone. Do I win a prize?
  • As much as I hate to say this, I kinda agree with Intermanaut... for every account of an iplodder side stepping in front of you at races there will be more of the at one with natures doing it (purely down to the ratio of ipod wearers to at one with nature type runners).  If you're in a crowded race/on a narrow path accept it there is more than likely going to be a twunt not paying any attention ahead of you...unless you're at the very front of course.

    I used to wear headphones for training, I don't anymore as I train with Mr CS and the only times (and there's been a few) I've nearly been mowed down by either a bike on the canal towpath or a car when I'm crossing the road is when I've been an iPod free zone... purely because I've been so at one with what I'm doing I've been obvlivious to everything else... actually I'm a sod for looking but not paying attention when I'm crossing a side street.

  • Cockney Latic wrote (see)
    I had a bit of a bad fall this morning whilst running wearing headphones - but I think it was more to do with a dodgy paving stone. Do I win a prize?

    I'll give you a fiver, if you were listening to Pavement.  image

  • Gingerbread mouse, the very first thing you are taught when you start  your trauma training as a medic is that the biggest factor in what kills or injures a person is velocity/speed. Speed and mass are important but the higher the speed the higher the chance of severe injury or death. Hence why you have different velocity guns!  A bullet wont kill you or hurt you if you chuck it at someone but it will if shot from a high velocity rifle.

     Anyways, I use headphones and MP3s when I run on my own in training, and have used them when runing on road marathons, but not when iv had a training partner or during trail races. I'v not had any problems or near misses with anyone. I think I actually look and shoulder check more when I have earphones in than when I do not.

  • I once saw my ex-colleague Joanne come a cropper while wearing headphones. Slightly OT but a good tale nonetheless.

    It was probably 15 years ago and a team of us were working away from home. Jo was in the hotel gym on the treadmill and I was on rowing machine. She had her new Sony Walkman cd player balanced on the side rail of the treadmill and was happily pounding along. Next thing we hear a big "oof, ow, awwwwww" and Jo is lying face down on the floor with her shorts pulled down to her knees. Her bum was very white and her face was very red.

    Later in the bar she explained how it had happened. The walkman had fallen off the rail and she had lunged to catch it causing the initial fall onto the treadill. For a short while her foot or feet had lodged against the pillar of the rail leaving her static long enough for the fast moving rubber belt to do it's worst...whipping her shorts down and giving her some nice red patches. Once she had grown tired of getting burned she removed her foot and was promptly deposited onto the gym floor.

    I think she'd have been better off without the headphones!
  • Ghostrider wrote (see)

    You have this 1000 yard stare. I nearly got hit by a car pulling out of his driveway, but that was him not paying attention, and could easily have happened, if i didnt have headphones on.

    This has almost happened to me on a number of occasion. However as I do not run with headphones I heard the cars before it became an issue.
  • I do have Mp3 but never run with it on as i run better without and safty crossing roads
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