Oct 17 2008
iPod Hit by Train
I know this is not a new story, but it illustrates another sure sign of the impending apocalypse .
WOODFIN – A 23-year-old man who police said was listening to an iPod suffered severe injuries after being struck from behind by a freight train on Tuesday.
Aaron James Parker V, of Asheville, was walking on a stretch of track between Flynn Branch and Farm Roads, authorities said.
“The engineer blew the air horn several, several times, and then the boy turned around right before the train hit him, and he tried to jump out of the way,” Woodfin police officer Charles Robinson said.
Parker landed about 20 feet from the tracks, Robinson said. He was in Mission Hospitals’ intensive care unit late Tuesday and in stable condition. Parker suffered several injuries, including broken bones, broken ribs, shoulder injuries and head injuries, West Buncombe Fire Department deputy chief Randy Ratcliff said.
Hit by a train! How loud is your iPod if you can’t hear a train? That level of volume can’t be good for the ears. I found an interesting article on the FDA site:
“One of the things that bothers me is that [young people] are aging their ears before their chronological time,” says audiologist David Lipscomb, who has researched hearing loss in students at the University of Tennessee.
In the fall of 1969, he tested the hearing of entering freshmen and found about 60 percent of them had hearing loss. Fourteen percent of the young men tested had hearing similar to the average 65-year-old. By comparison, only 3.8 percent of sixth-graders had hearing loss, suggesting that something–probably noise–was damaging hearing during the teen years.
“We know that the average 70-year-old will have some impairment from aging,” says Lipscomb. “But for young people [exposed to loud noises], the aging process is speeded up. They’re blowing their spare tires.”
Well, how do you know if you have it too loud? The article suggests this:
The rule of thumb for listening to music is to keep it low enough so that you can hear other sounds above the tunes. If you’re listening to a Walkman portable radio or similar headset, no one else should be able to hear your music.
I like the sound of that. At the risk of ridicule and scorn from my teenage son, I think iPods have become a bit of a nuisance. I love listening to mine when I want tune out the outside world. I use it on the bus, when I’m working on a deadline, or just vegging. What drives me nuts are people who wear them constently and expect to have conversations with you by removing one ear phone. What’s even worse are those who have the volume so loud that all around can hear. Let’s face it, when you are in your late 30s, jamming Michael Bolten on the bus does not make you cool. Seriously.
