Not every time earpiece, people. Sometimes, unplug – listen to your surroundings. A 13 year old boy in the United States of America, Jeffrey Bellinger decided to go through the railway track or line like we call it here after his mom said it was okay to take that way on his way back from school. But according to police, he had earphones on under his hoodie and didn’t hear the horn of an oncoming freight train.
The driver was reported to have horned severally but Jeffrey didn’t hear it. One wonders how loud a pair of earphones can be. The train struck and killed him. His mom was at home and called his phone severally without response. Then the incident on the railway line was reported but she didn’t know it was Jeffrey, her only child.
Prior to the incident, Tom Taylor, the superintendent of the boy’s school district — Hannover Community School — had told kids not to walk along the railway tracks. “In particular at our high school we’ve always suggested that they have one earbud in and one earbud out.”
Not too many Nigerian students are allowed to use cellphones and not too many of them ply the railway lines, however, some young adults as well as working class citizens walk and even drive on the busy streets of our cities with their ears plugged, listening to music and God-knows-what. If you MUST plug your ears, try to have just one earbud in, and please check the volume while you’re at it.
Image credit: iStockPhoto
