Pedestrian Safety and Headphones In Washington & Oregon: Listen Up
In Washington, every pedestrian has the duty to use ordinary care to avoid a collision. Ordinary care means the care a reasonably careful person would exercise under the same or similar circumstances. In Oregon, the rules are essentially the same: negligence means doing something a reasonably careful person would not have done, considering the apparent foreseeable dangers. In essence, pedestrians would be expecting that drivers are going to follow the law and not hit them, regardless of the headphones. But drivers might be expecting a person to be on the lookout with all his or her senses, anticipating a look over the shoulder or some other such action. And what about the ultra-quiet electric cars? Even without noise-canceling headphones, I have a hard time hearing those.