Shaana Rahman Featured in the American Association for Justice's Trial Magazine

For their February 2012 edition entitled "Moving Violations", the AAJ's Trial Magazine chose to address motor vehicle and bike accidents and their place in the law. As such, I'm pleased to say that our very own Shaana Rahman was featured in Trial Magazine with her highly informative essay on what attorneys representing bicyclists should expect, and what they should be doing to protect your rights.

Rising Rate of Pedestrian Accidents Caused by Headphone Use

"Injuries to pedestrians wearing headphones have more than tripled in six years, say researchers from the University of Maryland."

On the average day, we see dozens of people walking across the street with headphones plugged into their ears. And as city-dwellers, we are practically allergic to silence. So it's not difficult to feel a bit scared when we read statistics that say, out of the times where headphone-wearing pedestrians have been deaf to train whistles and car horns, 3/4ths of them end in fatalities.

According to a Care2 article, "Distraction and sensory deprivation while using electronic devices is called 'inattentional blindness'." Case reports published by associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland, Dr. Lichenstein, and his associates listed the following statistics regarding injured pedestrians who were wearing headphones at the time of their accidents:

• 68% of victims were males.
• 67% of victims were under 30 years old.
• Over 50% of accidents involved trains
• 29% of vehicles involved reported sounding a warning prior to the accident

While pedestrians have no control over reckless drivers, they can help their odds at least a little by keeping their ears open. So try to keep both unplugged and aware of your surroundings out there.