This week Con Textlooks at PODESTRIAN

Sorry, didn't catch that.

Podestrians are people who walk around in an iPod-induced daze, totally zoned out on their favourite tunes, and completely oblivious to that articulated lorry bearing down on them at high speed.

Oops! Thanks for the warning. Now, what were you saying?

The rise of the iPod generation means that more and more people are listening to music on the move, and paying more attention to the guitar solos than to what's going on around them. They're humming along to The Cars while completely ignoring the cars on the road. They're crossing the street without due care, invariably causing an accident.

How careless! Why don't they look where they're going?

Podestrians may not only be listening to their iPod while crossing the road, they may also be sending a text message or checking their e-mails on their blackberry. Not a good idea when you're trying to get across a busy city centre street.

Don't these people have the Safe Cross Code song downloaded onto their iPod?

Insurance companies in the UK are finding that podestrians are increasingly being blamed for causing accidents. Drivers are having to brake suddenly to avoid a perambulating pedestrian, which causes the driver behind to shunt into his rear. Some podestrians aren't so lucky, and end up in casualty. According to one insurance company, nearly one tenth of minor accidents have involved somebody operating a personal Mp3 player or other such device.

But surely they could hear a car horn over the music? Mp3 players aren't that loud.

No, but headphone technology has also come on along with Mp3 technology.

Back in the days of the Sony Walkman, you could probably hear the traffic above the music and tape hiss, but these days, headphones that filter out all external noise have become very popular - anyone wearing one of these would have to be hit by a jumbo jet to hear anything coming. Also, Sony Walkman users weren't crossing the road while reading their text messages - their biggest distraction was looking at their digital watches.

So, what are we to do to prevent this carnage?

In New York, legislators want to ban the use of MP3 players, cellphones and blackberries while crossing the street, and set a fine of $100 for anyone caught shuffling across the street while wired for sound.

Will that work? Sounds like more drastic measures are needed.

In Australia, a series of road safety ads have been put out, depicting a pedestrian lying dead on the road, his headphone cord forming a chalk outline around his lifeless form. The message is, Mp3 players can kill, so look before you leap in front of oncoming traffic.

So when did podestrian become a term for careless crossers?

Only recently. Around 2005, podestrian was used to describe anyone who clung tenaciously to their iPod, despite the growth of rival Mp3 players that were cheaper and performed better. Podestrians were seen as stick-in-the-muds, joined at the hip to their iPods, and refusing to try any other technology. Now, however, you don't have to be wearing an iPod to be a podestrian - any brand will do.

Try at work:It's a new version of Grand Theft Auto- you get extra points for podestrians!

Try at home:You got hit by a car? Omigod! Was the iPod damaged?