USAG Stuttgart Safety Office
The Department of Defense Traffic Safety Program prohibits the use of portable headphones, earphones and listening devices for runners, joggers, pedestrians, cyclists, skaters and skateboarders on or near a road or area where vehicles are being operated while on DOD property.
Serious injuries to pedestrians listening to headphones have more than tripled in six years, according to research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
The study reviewed 116 accidents, in which 70 percent resulted in death to the pedestrian involved and nearly a third of the vehicle drivers reported sounding some type of warning prior to the crash. Most of the victims were male and under the age of 30, and most of these deaths occurred in urban areas.