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Sounds absurd right? You would think so, but a Vancouver paper is claiming that if a student had not been listening to his iPod on the way to pick up his mail, he would still be living and breathing today.
Now, I'm all for making sure that you don't play music to loud when listening with in-ear headphones or earbuds, but seriously, so say that due to the volume of his iPod, he had no idea that a helicopter was about to crash on him is really pushing it.
globeandmail.com: Death spurs headphone debate:
VANCOUVER -- The death of a pedestrian in Cranbrook, B.C., on Tuesday has raised the question of how loud is too loud when it comes to listening to iPods and other personal music players.Isaiah Otieno, a 23-year-old student, was killed when he was struck and dragged by a helicopter that crashed to the ground as he was walking to the mailbox.
Eyewitnesses reported that Mr. Otieno seemed completely unaware that he was in danger and a friend told reporters that he often listened to music through earbuds (in-ear headphones) with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his head.
By the way, the above story goes on for quite a few more paragraphs, but this is the only part of the story that talks specifically about the helicopter crash and iPods.
I'm surprised that they are not complaining that hoodies (sweatshirts with hoods that can be cinched tight around the head) are dangerous as well. It's certainly as much to blame for this kids death as the iPod is.
Getting back to the point of this story... Yes it's important that people listening to music via headphones or earbuds should be careful to not play them too loud so they don't damage their hearing. Is it really the government's business to regulate how loud a portable media device can be played and enforce it? When are we going to stop blaming everybody and thing other than ourselves for our own stupidity?
Putting limits on the maximum volume a portable media player can be set to is really not the answer here. Have you ever tried to listen to a podcast that had not been recorded with correct level before being published? Or audiobooks for that matter. If there were limits enforced on my iPod, I would not be able to listen to those items at all. The way Apple implemented volume limiting actually is pretty darn good. A parent could set the limit so that their child can't adjust it later unless they know the code set by the parent. This puts the responsibility squarely on the parent and not Apple.
Now I suppose that if you look at this from a medical/insurance standpoint, a person who plays his portable media player too loud to the point of damaging his/her hearing will later probably be needing medical attention when they start complaining that they can't hear. Which would possibly lead to needing a hearing aid to help them hear. Which costs all insured citizens since the claim would inevitability result in rate increases.
So I suppose, to protect our insurance rates, we need some form of control from idiots that play portable media players too loud. However, there are lots of other ways humans can destroy their hearing than listening to a portable media player too loud.
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