Have iPod, Will Travel... and Get Run Over

Surgeon General's Warning: iPod use may be dangerous to your health.

Earlier this year, Ilya Kiselev, 20, was run over and killed while crossing Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Kiselev, who lived in Brooklyn, was wearing iPod headphones at the time.

The death of Kiselev and two other New Yorkers who were fatally injured after being run over in New York's streets while listening to their iPods has prompted the introduction of legislation that would "ban people from listening to music players or using electronic devices that would hamper their awareness of their surroundings while crossing the street." NY State Senator Carl Kruger wants pedestrians fined $100 for violating such a ban, and his chief of staff, Jason Joppel, explains why:

“The individuals were tuned into iPods and tuned out to the surroundings around them, and they stepped off the curb into the path of an oncoming bus or truck or car,” he said. “All three were fatally injured. In one case people, were screaming at the person to watch out, but the person couldn’t hear them because iPod [headphones] were in the person’s ears.”

If common sense won't get iPod users in New York to keep the volume of their iPods down while walking around its streets, then maybe the hundred-buck fine might.

Read the original article here.