Walking the streets while wearing headphones can put people at risk of getting run over by vehicles. In an effort to avert any such freak accidents in the future, a group of scientists is developing special earphones that alert their users of approaching vehicles that can potentially prove to be a threat.
Known as ‘twalking’, the behaviour is prevalent on most city streets and can be dangerous for all road users, as headphone-wearing pedestrians often cannot hear the auditory cues that signal imminent harm, such as horns, shouts, or the sound of approaching cars. As a result, the number of injuries and deaths caused by twalking in the US has tripled in the last seven years. Last year, pedestrian deaths across the country were at their highest level since 1990.