I’M not a fan of people wearing earphones while running or cycling.

The issue has come to light this week after an inquest heard the wearing of earphones could have contributed to the death of a female cyclist.

The tragic event happened earlier this year when 38-year-old Emily Norton fell off her bike trying to avoid a collision with a lorry at a roundabout in Yorkshire.

The coroner said listening to music through her earphones could have been a distraction.

Whether it was or was not – and the coroner said he did not know if she had been listening to music at the time – there is no doubt in my mind people should not wear earphones while cycling on roads.

It is not illegal for cyclists to wear earphones in Britain, but it should be.

One argument put this week in favour of cyclists listening to music through earphones is that it shuts out all the sound clutter from the road and enables riders to focus fully on their cycling.

That may be so, but surely any advantages of not hearing irrelevant sounds are outweighed by the disadvantages of not hearing the sounds that could save your life.

The car that’s coming out of a side street, the lorry coming up behind you, the shout from a stranger to watch out – there’s a myriad of reasons you should have all your faculties in optimum working order when you are out on a busy road on your bike.

The principle extends to running. When I see someone pounding the pavements with their earphones in I see an accident waiting to happen.

Sure, thousands of people do it and there do not appear to be many accidents caused because of it. But similar could be said about people texting on their phones while driving and that certainly is wrong.

Kids are taught to stop, look and listen before crossing the road, these three key principles still featuring on government road safety web pages.

If it’s important for kids it’s important for adults when they’re negotiating road junctions while out running.

And not wearing earphones would benefit others too.

Drivers would not have that nervy moment wondering if the runner has heard them coming as they both reach a junction at the same time.

Pedestrians would not have to get out of the way on the occasions when runners are so engrossed in their music and staring at where they are putting their feet that they don’t notice what’s right in front of them.

Which brings me to the personally delicate subject of how earphones affect group running.

I have to be careful here because I do the Bolton parkrun every Saturday morning where 200 to 300 people run through the woods at Leverhulme Park in close proximity to each other.

A have a lot of friends there and many of them listen to music through earphones while running.

It’s understandable why. Either they enjoy it, or it helps them get round or maybe even gives them an indication of how fast they’re running if they listen to the same soundtrack every week and know where on the course they should be by a certain song.

But that’s no good to me when I’m trying to get past someone in the woods and they waver in front of me because they can’t hear me coming.