CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Deaths and serious injuries to people listening to music through headphones who are hit by trains or motor vehicles have more than tripled in the past six years, according to a study released last month by the University of Maryland.
Hurricane High school student Jacob Dwayne Ball, who reportedly was listening to loud heavy-metal music with his headphones, was hit and killed by a train Wednesday.
Ball, 16, was walking home along the tracks near Teays Valley Road across from Hurricane High School when the CSX train struck him. Several witnesses said they heard the train and at least one school bus blaring horns at Ball just before he was hit.
Larry Angell, a detective with the Hurricane Police Department, said he has ruled Ball's death an accident.
"Our conclusion from the investigation is that Jacob Ball was listening to music, as he did pretty much every day of his life," Angell said. "He was an avid music listener and liked heavy metal at a very high volume."
At the time of the accident, Angell said, Ball was wearing "the type of ear phones that are very effective -- that seal off back into the ear canal, even.
"With that type of music playing at that high of a volume, he didn't really have a chance to hear [the train coming]," Angell said.
Dr. Richard Lichenstein, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of pediatric emergency medicine at the university's medical center, conducted the study on the risk pedestrians take while using headphones.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Deaths and serious injuries to people listening to music through headphones who are hit by trains or motor vehicles have more than tripled in the past six years, according to a study released last month by the University of Maryland.
Hurricane High school student Jacob Dwayne Ball, who reportedly was listening to loud heavy-metal music with his headphones, was hit and killed by a train Wednesday.
Ball, 16, was walking home along the tracks near Teays Valley Road across from Hurricane High School when the CSX train struck him. Several witnesses said they heard the train and at least one school bus blaring horns at Ball just before he was hit.
Larry Angell, a detective with the Hurricane Police Department, said he has ruled Ball's death an accident.
"Our conclusion from the investigation is that Jacob Ball was listening to music, as he did pretty much every day of his life," Angell said. "He was an avid music listener and liked heavy metal at a very high volume."
At the time of the accident, Angell said, Ball was wearing "the type of ear phones that are very effective -- that seal off back into the ear canal, even.
"With that type of music playing at that high of a volume, he didn't really have a chance to hear [the train coming]," Angell said.
Dr. Richard Lichenstein, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of pediatric emergency medicine at the university's medical center, conducted the study on the risk pedestrians take while using headphones.
"A teenager died on the railroad tracks here, who was also wearing headphones," Lichenstein told the Sunday Gazette-Mail. "I don't know if it's the reason why these things happen, but it was at least worth thinking about."
An article published in ScienceDaily, an online news website, cites Lichenstein's study and notes, "In many cases, the cars or trains are sounding horns that the pedestrians cannot hear, leading to fatalities in nearly three-quarters of cases."
Researchers studied reports of injuries sustained while a pedestrian was wearing headphones between 2004 and 2011, and found that 70 percent of 116 accidents resulted in deaths.
Most at risk were young males under age 30 -- more than 68 percent -- and more than half of the incidents involved trains.
The study was conducted to create awareness, Lichenstein said, noting the increase in technological devices.
"I was looking through the Internet at similar cases and just wanted to take a systematic approach and see what was happening over the years, as I know iPods and MP3 [players] are becoming more and more popular," he said. "We are now in an age of being more and more connected to electronic devices, and when we are, we sometimes will not be paying attention to the outside environment."
Reach Kate White at kate.wh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
