iPod Oblivion

GMTV called it iPod Oblivion and The Mirror calls them iPodestrians. If I were the Apple PR department I'd be in running-around mode right now because their product name isn't being used in a pleasant manner because what's under discussion are those pedestrians (and cyclists and vehicle drivers) wrapped in their own little cocoon of music (or chat or text) as they navigate the road network.

So why the sudden attention. the government has released figures showing a record low in road deaths and this was followed up by the AA apparently producing a report that claims that such lack of attention may be a factor in more than half of pedestrian injuries or deaths. I have to say "apparently" and "may" because the report isn't featured on the AA website, the closest I found was "Avoid being a zombie" written in January.

Will this change anything? Nope it's a story that so far only appears in two papers (as found by Google News) The Mirror as per the link above and a new one with a picture and the Telegraph which appeared just as I was finishing typing and the GMTV report which lasted about 5 minutes at around 7:30 and wasn't repeated as far as I saw.

It's no use educating children to do things correctly if their actions are going to be superseded by their parents, it needs to be reinforced. The children need to complain when their parents try to drag them across the street; responsible parents need to point these people out to their children with a loud "Now that's what you shouldn't do" in an attempt to shame those into the correct behaviour. That's the only way it might stop.