Earphone Accidents Are More Common Than You Might Think

It seemed unthinkable.

How could a normal, healthy boy, with no hearing or vision problems, walk into a railroad crossing while the gates were down, lights were flashing and bells were ringing practically over his head?

How, when the locomotive crew spotted him, could he not hear the frantic horn they sounded?

As we learned after , it was because .

• Scroll to the bottom of this article for information on services and a candelight vigil in memory of Joey Kramer.

To most people, even knowing that, it still seemed unthinkable that Joey was so immersed in a cocoon of music that he would not have noticed all the visual and aural cues, the outright clamor of that crossing, that immense, earthshaking mass bearing down on him.

But it isn't unthinkable. As it turns out, it isn't even an isolated incident. Joey was far from the first to be involved in this kind of accident, and he certainly wasn't the last.

Another serious accident follows

The very next day, Tuesday afternoon, a 14-year-old boy was struck and seriously injured by a train in Wyandotte, MI, under eerily similar circumstances, as reported in our sibling publication, Wyandotte Patch.

High school student Jacob Marion was walking along railroad tracks when a train struck him shortly after 4:30 p.m., according to Wyandotte Patch editor Jason Alley's report.

This is what Wyandotte Police Chief Daniel Grant said happened:

"(Our) preliminary investigation into the incident indicates that he was walking northbound on the railroad tracks approximately 50 yards north of Oak Street while wearing an iPod and headphones," Grant said. "The train’s engineer blew the whistle several times to warn the victim prior to impact."

Jacob remained in critical condition as of the latest report filed early Thursday.

A growing danger in the digital age

A shocking coincidence? Sadly, no. Accidents such as those that took the life of Joey and left Jacob critically injured are on the rise.

Just one month ago, at about the same time Joey was getting used to his new home a block south of the tracks on 68th Street, the University of Maryland School of Medicine released a new study on pedestrians being struck by cars or trains while wearing earphones.

According to the Maryland study, the number of such accidents in the United States has more than tripled since 2004.

The victims are predominantly young men and boys, the study found.

And nearly three-quarters of those accidents proved fatal.

"Everybody is aware of the risk of cell phones and texting in automobiles, but I see more and more teens distracted with the latest devices and headphones in their ears," said lead author Richard Lichenstein, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, in announcing his findings. "Unfortunately, as we make more and more enticing devices, the risk of injury from distraction and blocking out other sounds increases."

Lichenstein and his colleagues studied 116 such accidents from 2004 to 2011 for the report. They found that most — 55 percent — involved a pedestrian being hit by a train, and that in most cases that resulted in death.

Study prompted by local boy's death

In fact, Lichenstein said that the medical school study was initiated by the death of a local Maryland boy who, like Joey, walked blithely into a railroad crossing while wearing earphones and was struck and killed.

Lichenstein wondered, how could such an accident possibly occur?

Distraction and sensory deprivation, he and fellow researchers concluded.

Distraction caused by using electronic devices is called "inattentional blindness," Lichenstein writes.

Essentially, the researchers say, the human brain has only so many resources to allocate to receiving stimulii. Multiple stimuli "divide the brain's mental resource allocation," the report notes.

When a pedestrian is wearing headphones, the report goes on, that mental distraction is multiplied by a masking effect — the music signal delivered directly into the ears deprives the senses of normal awareness of outside activity.

The wearer is indeed inside a cocoon. But it is not a safe one.

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The following arrangements and events are scheduled to remember Joseph "Joey" Kramer:

THURSDAY

4:30 p.m. visitation, 7 p.m. service at , 380 Bluemound Road, Waukesha.

FRIDAY

11 a.m. burial, Hyland Memorial Park, Brookfield
6 p.m. candelight vigil, starting at Joey Kramer's house at 1040 N. 68th St. The vigil is organized by The Peace for Change Alliance. Organizers ask that any student is accompanied by a parent.