Keep your eyes on the road. Naturally, it’s good advice, but it doesn’t say much about your other senses. As an example, think about the amount of work your ears are doing when you’re driving. You’re using your ears to engage with other people in your vehicle, alert you to important information appearing on your dashboard, and help you track other vehicles.
So how you drive can change if you’re going through hearing impairment. That’s not to say your driving will come to be prohibitively dangerous. With regards to safety, inexperience and distracted driving are far greater liabilities. Still, some specific precautions should be taken by people with hearing loss to ensure they keep driving as safely as possible.
Hearing loss can affect your situational awareness but developing good driving habits can help you stay safe while driving.
How your driving may be impacted by hearing loss
In general, driving is a vision-centered task (at least, if it’s not a vision-centric activity, something has gone wrong). Even if you have total hearing loss, your driving could change but you will still likely be able to drive. While driving you do utilize your hearing a lot, after all. Here are some typical examples:
- Even though many vehicles are engineered to reduce road noise, your sense of hearing can add to your awareness of other vehicles. You will typically be able to hear an oncoming truck, for example.
- Emergency vehicles can usually be heard before they can be seen.
- Your vehicle will {often\sometimes} make audible sounds and alerts in order to alert you to something (turn signals or unbuckled seat belts, for instance).
- Other drivers will often honk their horns to make you aware of their presence. If you fail to see the light turn to green, for example, or you begin to drift into the other lane, a horn can get your attention before it becomes an issue.
- Your hearing will often alert you when your car is damaged in some way. For instance, if you run over something in the road or a rock hits your windshield.
All of these audio cues can help build your total situational awareness. As your hearing loss progresses, you may miss more and more of these cues. But you can take some positive measures to keep your driving as safe as possible.
New safe driving habits to develop
It’s no problem if you want to continue driving even after you have hearing loss! Stay safe out on the road using these tips:
- Put away your phone: Even if your hearing is strong, this one is still good advice. Phones are among the highest causes of distraction on the road these days. And that goes double when you attempt to use them when you have hearing loss. Keeping your phone stowed can, simply, keep you and other people safer–and save your life.
- Don’t neglect your instrument panel: usually, when you need to give attention to your instrument panel, your vehicle will beep or make some other sound. So periodically glance down to see if any dash lights are on.
- Check your mirrors more often: Even with sirens blaring, you may not hear that ambulance coming up behind you. So make sure you aren’t neglecting your mirrors. And keep the possible presence of emergency vehicles in mind.
- Keep the noise inside your car to a minimum: It will be difficult for your ears to distinguish sounds when you have hearing loss. When the wind is blowing and your passenger is talking, it may become easy for your ears to get overstimulated, which can cause fatigue and distraction. So when you’re driving, it’s a smart idea to reduce the volume on your radio, keep discussions to a minimum, and put up your windows.
How to keep your hearing aid driving ready
Driving is one of those activities that, if you are dealing with hearing loss, a hearing aid can really help. And there are several ways you can make sure your hearing aid is a real asset when you’re driving:
- Ask us for a “driving” setting: If you anticipate doing a lot of driving, you can ask us to give you a “car” setting on your hearing aid. This setting will be calibrated for the interior space and configuration of your vehicle (where, usually, your passenger is to your side and not in front of you), making your drive easier and more pleasant.
- Get the most recent updates and keep your hearing aid charged and clean: You don’t want your hearing aid batteries to quit right in the middle of a drive to the store. That can be distracting and maybe even dangerous. So make certain everything is working properly and the batteries are charged.
- Wear your hearing aid each time you drive: It’s not going to help you if you don’t use it! So make certain you’re wearing your hearing aids every time you drive. This will also help your brain get used to the sounds your hearing aid sends into your ears.
Hearing loss doesn’t mean driving is an issue, particularly with hearing aids which make it easier and safer. Your drive will be pleasant and your eyes will remain focused on the road if you establish safe driving habits.
