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The number of serious and fatal injuries involving pedestrians wearing headphones has tripled since 2004.

Doting mothers often warn that listening to music too loud can make a child hard of hearing. After the influx of iPods and mobile devices over the last decade, city streets are now filled with pedestrians grooving to music in their head. But they’re at risk of losing more than a few octaves, reports USA Today.  

According to a study by the University of Maryland, the number of serious and fatal injuries involving pedestrians wearing headphones tripled from 2004 to 2011. "Everybody is aware of the risk of cellphones and texting in automobiles, but I see more and more teens distracted with the latest devices and headphones in their ears," Richard Lichenstein, lead author and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told USA Today.

Of the 116 accidents studied, 70% resulted in fatalities, often after a car or train sounded a horn which pedestrians couldn’t hear. The study was motivated by the death of 14-year-old Anna Marie Stickel, who was killed in Maryland while taking a shortcut to school, reports msnbc.com. After she missed her school bus on January 5, 2010, Stickel was walking along railroad tracks listening to her iPod when an Amtrak train hit her from behind.

The researchers pulled data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google News archives and a research database on campus. They expressed a possible concern that the results could be influenced by media reporting, “which likely over-publishes tragic events but vastly under-publishes non-fatal cases,” reports Bloomberg.

Nevertheless, the researchers found it essential to communicate their findings. "As a pediatric emergency physician and someone interested in safety and prevention I saw this as an opportunity to -- at minimum -- alert parents of teens and young adults of the potential risk of wearing headphones where moving vehicles are present," Lichenstein told USA Today.