Decibel-loving drivers aren’t just risking their hearing; they are also risking their safety, according to the RAC Foundation who is backing campaigning MP Dr Tony Wright’s call for antisocial in-car audio to be run off the road.
Dr Tony Wright, MP for Cannock Chase, told the House of Commons "Research carried out by the RAC Foundation found that drivers who were listening to loud music with a fast beat were twice as likely to go through a red light, and that they have twice as many accidents.
Cocooned in their sound bubble, they are oblivious to other road users and to their general environment."
RAC Foundation research has also shown that, while improvements in technology mean car engines are 50% quieter than they were ten years ago, factory-fitted car stereos have become more powerful and after-market units more affordable.
Replying to the debate, Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said, "How many people, I wonder, have been distracted by the sudden "Boom! Boom! Boom!" coming from one of those cars, wondering what on earth was happening, as the ground beneath them shook or the walls and windows of their home vibrated to the heavy thud of some violent bass beat?"
The Minister compared the volume of a top-of-the-range sound system with a jet taking off from Heathrow, and reminded motorists that anyone exposed to such high volumes of sound in their workplace would have to wear ear defenders. Hear Hear. Pardon?
Jackie Violet