Pedestrians who wear headphones when crossing roads could be soon told not to amid increasing concerns about silent electric cars.
A coroner called has called road signs to remind pedestrians and joggers to remove their tech while crossing roads after a woman thought to be wearing headphones was killed while crossing a country road in Wales.
READ MORE - Passport warning after UK tourists heading to Spain caught out amid delays
The woman was struck by a car on a 60mph stretch next to the Montgomery Canal near Powys in 2020, with witnesses stating the car involved in the incident had “a quiet engine which could not be heard at the time of the accident”.
In a ruling aimed at preventing future deaths, the coroner for South Wales Central, Dr Sarah-Jane Richards, said new guidance is needed.
This could include road signs which warn pedestrians about the dangers of crossing roads while wearing headphones.
She said: “With the increasing popularity of noiseless electric cars, the frequency of wearing earphones while taking exercise and the B4398 [where the death happened] having a 60mph speed limit, I consider there is a risk of reoccurrence of such an accident.
“Within the Highway Code, it states, ‘Keep looking and listening for traffic while you cross, in case there is any traffic you did not see or other traffic appears suddenly,'" she told MailOnline.
The European Commission passed a rule in 2019 which mandated that all new types of electric and hybrid vehicles have to be fitted with a new safety device.
As of July 1, 2019, the Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System will automatically generate a sound from the start up of the car to the speed of around 20kmh or 12.4mph.
The sound-emitting device has been obligatory in all new e-cars as of July 1, 2021.
