Story showing pro-car bias in the mainstream media: "Pedestrian Deaths Linked to Headphones"

[closeupready]

Pedestrian deaths may have SOME link to bad drivers, but mostly, it's due to headphones.

>>The number of pedestrians seriously injured or killed while wearing headphones has tripled since 2004, a new study found.

Researchers from Baltimore scoured U.S. news archives and research databases for pedestrian injuries and deaths involving headphones over the last seven years. They found 116 cases — most involving men younger than 30 — rising from 16 in the year ending in 2005 to 47 in the year ending in 2011.

“The risks posed by the use of these devices by drivers are well documented, but little is known about the association between headphone use and pedestrian injury,” the authors reported in the journal Injury Prevention. “Although causal relationships cannot be proven, we speculate on implications for pedestrian safety.”<<

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/16/pedestrian-deaths-linked-to-headphones/

[hlthe2b]

1. I suppose we should all be grateful...

they didn't entitle the article: "Automobile damage claims on the rise linked to pedestrian fatalities while wearing headphones"....

[EOTE]

2. What makes you think this is showing a bias?

Pedestrian deaths have been on the rise this past decade. Is it your guess that drivers are simply getting worse and worse? Isn't it rational to believe that the increase in the number of pedestrians using headphones has something to do with it?

[TheWraith]

3. Oh please.

Unless you believe that somehow drivers are getting worse, or that drivers should be responsible for someone blundering out into the middle of traffic and being unable to stop, the only bias here is trying to find a way to blame cars for the fact that some people are acting stupidly.

A few days ago I watched somebody wander right through the middle of a four-lane thoroughfare in a 45 MPH zone--right through the middle, not in a cross walk--while blathering on his cell phone. If he got hit and killed because he was too wrapped up in his conversation to pay attention to his surroundings, is it the fault of the driver who couldn't stop fast enough, or the guy who ran out in front of him while being stupid?

[slackmaster]

4. It reads more like a valid indictment of inattentive pedestrians to me

The primary responsibility for an able-bodied individual's safety falls on the individual.

[boppers]

5. Pro car? No, anti-distraction.

“The risks posed by the use of these devices by drivers are well documented"

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. They must be pro-train also:

with more than half of the victims being struck by trains. In roughly one-third of the cases, horns or sirens sounded before the victim was hit, according to eyewitness reports.

[frylock]

6. i know someone who died this way..

carelessly crossed the road while wearing headphones. husband yelling out at her to STOP, but she didn't hear him. driver was not at fault.

[LeftyMom]

13. I do too.

To date the story, he was rollerblading while using his new Sony Discman.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. I knew a guy from high school who tried to cross a railroad crossing in a car

while "jamming" to his 8-track tape player, and he apparently didn't hear the approaching train blowing its whistle.

[SomethingFishy]

7. So it's the fault of the headphones and not

the person who didn't bother to look both ways before crossing the street?

[wandy]

9. So.... We have a pedestrian wondering about in the city with Lady Gaga blasting in their ears......

And someone tooling around in a 4000 pound vehicle yakking away on their cell phone with a dog in their lap.....
And somehow you think this isn't going to end in tears?

Sorry. People wearing headphones in traffic or people driving while talking on the phone piss me off.

[Ron Green]

10. Despite the "responsible for own self" replies

in this thread, I get what you're saying. It's the same with all the stories celebrating the return of the Auto Industry, and none questioning the wisdom of continuing a car-based society.

[closeupready]

17. Exactly. Back in the Middle Ages, pedestrians always had the right of way.

In these modern times (and on a new version of DU, lol), I have to remember that we live in a more enlightened society, and that some people think those in control of vehicles bear no responsibility for killing pedestrians.

[Nevernose]

19. Pedestrians are not always in the right, though.

There are laws for them, too, and sometimes they break them. Pedestrians do not always have rot of way. They must be at a marked crosswalk or obvious intersection and they must wait for the light and they are expected to give automobiles time to stop.

What I'm saying is that sometimes the driver is at fault, and sometimes she isn't. Our society is far too heavily car-centered. We need to build cities upwards instead of out and make mass transportation systems in the US the norm, although even that might not cut down on pedestrian deaths -- ever tried walking across Rome or New York?

[closeupready]

20. Right - the larger point here is, I find the inherent bias towards finding car drivers innocent

where pedestrians are killed to be yet another sign our society is becoming more brutish and hard. You can hear it even in the responses here. Mind you, I don't take DU so seriously. Nonetheless, the responses are what they are. Some of them, based upon who is posting, are predictably right-wing. Others, such as yours, make the attempt to find the nuance here.

[libinnyandia]

11. The main difference: walking, you die , ; driving, someone else dies.

[cthulu2016]

12. And you know this to be false how?

[RZM]

14. People are probably driving the same as they did in 2004.

I imagine the difference is the market increase in people who have mp3 players and smart phones and use them while walking around. I had neither an mp3 player or a cell phone in 2004 and I never used headphones while walking around. Now I have both and use headphones frequently.

[Mopar151]

15. How about a bias twoard reality?

Effing idiots who are not paying attention are the problem - whether they need to hang up and drive, or touch down from the stratosphere now 'n then and see where they are. Not to mention the byciclists who think their karma will deflect a loaded cement mixer, or the fools who can't be bothered to steer while texting.
Yes, Americans drive too much, and often drive badly - but arguing that there is a "pro-car bias'' because too many idiots walked out into traffic isn't going to solve anything.