From HardOCP I tonight read news that some kid was wearing earphones and died because he didn’t hear a helicopter fall on him, so the issue of safe use of headphones has been raised up. Huh? I normally wouldn’t post something like this, but the discussion potential of this is both disturbing and hilarious (definitely fark fodder and sure to be revisited for the 2008 Darwin Awards despite not entirely being the kid’s fault).

I’ve taken a few snippets from the discussion thread over on HardOCP:

Why do people look to freak accidents as examples for change?

I mean, if he had been mowing the lawn would they be arguing that lawn mowers are too loud[?]

An RIAA representative said that a fleet of 400 choppers have been acquired and you should expect similar actions taken against people suspected of violating their rights.

Yes, there is a personal choice made whenever someone is wandering around and wearing headphones turned up too loud, from cars to other pedestrians to bikers sneaking up behind them, that is typically their own choice to lose their sense of hearing for that period of time. At the very least, a kid wearing headphones too loudly is only a danger to himself.

At the end of the day, a helicopter fell out of the sky and killed someone. Really, what the fuck are ya gonna do?