Don’t take your eyes off the road. Obviously, it’s good advice, but it doesn’t say much about your other senses. Your ears, for example, are doing a lot of work when you’re driving, helping you keep track of other vehicles, calling your attention to info on your dashboard, and keeping you engaged with the other people in your vehicle.
So when you’re coping with hearing impairment, the way you drive can change. That’s not to say your driving will come to be excessively dangerous. When it comes to safety, inexperience and distracted driving are much bigger liabilities. That being said, those with decreased hearing need to take some special precautions to stay as safe as possible.
Developing good driving habits can go a long way to help you remain a safe driver even if hearing impairment may be influencing your situational awareness.
How hearing loss could be affecting your driving
Vision is the primary sense utilized when driving. Even complete hearing loss most likely won’t stop you from driving, but it very likely may change the way you drive. While driving you do utilize your hearing a lot, after all. Some typical examples include:
- Your hearing will usually alert you when your car has some kind of malfunction. For instance, if you run over something in the road or a rock hits your windshield.
- Emergency vehicles can usually be heard before they can be seen.
- Even though many vehicles are designed to decrease road noise, your sense of hearing can raise your awareness of other vehicles. You will typically be able to hear an oncoming truck, for example.
- Other motorists will often use their horns to alert you to their presence. If you fail to notice the light turn to green, for instance, or you begin to wander into the other lane, a horn can get your attention before it becomes a problem.
- Your vehicle will {often\sometimes} make audible sounds and alerts in order to alert you to something (turn signals or unbuckled seat belts, for example).
By using all of these audio cues, you will be building better situational awareness. You could start to miss more and more of these audio cues as your hearing loss advances. But there are measures you can take to ensure you still remain as safe as you can while driving.
Practicing new safe driving habits
It’s fine if you want to keep driving even after you have hearing loss! Here are a few ways you can be certain to remain safe while driving:
- Check your mirrors more often: You may not be able to hear an ambulance pull up behind you–even with all those sirens going. So make sure you aren’t neglecting your mirrors. And keep the possible presence of emergency vehicles in mind.
- Keep your phone out of reach: Well, this is wise advice whether you have hearing loss or not. One of the leading causes of distracted driving, nowadays, is cellphones. And that goes double when you attempt to use them with hearing loss. Keeping your phone stowed can, simply, keep you and other people safer–and save your life.
- Don’t ignore your dash lights: Usually, your car will beep or ding when you need to look at your instrument panel for some reason. So you’ll want to make sure you glance down (when it’s safe) and make sure your turn signals aren’t still on, or your check engine light isn’t on.
- Keep interior noise to a minimum: It will be hard for your ears to distinguish noises when you’re going through hearing loss. It could be easy for your ears to get overstimulated and for you to get distracted if you have passengers loudly talking and music playing and wind in your ears. So roll up your window, turn down the music, and keep conversations to a minimum when driving.
How to keep your hearing aid driving ready
Driving is one of those tasks that, if you are dealing with hearing loss, a hearing aid can really help. And when you’re driving, utilize these tips to make your hearing aids a real advantage:
- Keep your hearing aids clean, updated, and charged: When you’re on your way to the store, the last thing you need is for your battery to quit. That can be distracting and possibly even dangerous. So keep your batteries charged and ensure everything’s in working order.
- Every time you drive, wear your hearing aid: If you don’t wear it, it won’t help! So each time you drive, make certain you’re wearing your hearing aids. By doing this, your brain will have an easier time getting used to the incoming signals.
- 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. The size of the interior of your vehicle and the fact that your passengers will be talking to you from the side or rear will be the factors we will use to optimize this “car setting” for easier safer driving.
Plenty of individuals with hearing loss continue to drive and hearing aids make the process easier and safer. Developing safer driving habits can help guarantee that your drive is enjoyable and that your eyes remain safely on the road.