This is a real danger, because often earpiece volumes are turned to the fullest, drowning out all ambient noise.

I’ve certainly been in one or two situations where passer’s by had to warn me of approaching vehicles, because I was oblivious to the car despite it tooting its horn repeatedly.

Reports from Nigeria indicate a passenger train ran over a young man at Oshodi, Lagos, on Wednesday.

The train was coming out of the station and had blown its horn repeatedly for pedestrians to clear off. The victim apparently had earpieces in and did not hear the warnings.

The train thus ran over him, with eyewitnesses saying the body was dragged underneath the train, leaving it mangled.

What an unfortunate accident. Certainly having earphones on and walking on a train track is a very careless action. Even the dangers of listening to loud music are well documented, so for everyone one piece in and one ear free would not be a bad combination.