According to a leading insurance firm, 1 in 10 road accidents involve pedestrians who are listening to their MP3 players instead of paying attention, and over 50% of those are teenagers or children.

A spokesman for the insurance company stated:

In many accounts of minor accidents on insurance claim forms, we have seen a significant increase in drivers citing such individuals as having been a factor in the incident.

According to the insurance company, the most common accident involving people listening to MP3 players or iPods are caused by people wandering into the road without being able to hear the traffic.

Often this has led to the driver of the vehicle breaking sharply, causing an accident with the car behind.

The problem of music players masking the noise of cars can often be compounded by the simultaneous use of mobile phones. Text messaging on the move means many pedestrians are not looking at what’s straight ahead or checking to their left and right.

People have enjoyed listening to music on foot ever since the first Sony Walkmans were introduced in the late 1970s.

But 30 years on there seems to be a rising number of pedestrians who are isolated from traffic noise.

Authorities are so concerned about the problem that they’re even trying to ban the use of MP3 players for pedestrians who are crossing the streets in New York.