Should the hearing impaired be allowed to drive an automobile?

I think that if we banned deaf people from driving, we would have to ban people listening to music while driving as well….

Seems like it would really depend on just how impaired your hearing is. Deaf as a post, no way should you be behind the wheel of a car, there are just too many auditory cues. But some level of impairment is acceptable, a sliding scale with a cut off (just like with legal blindness). General rule of thumb seems like if you can’t hear someone honking at you from a few car lengths or away or hear a siren from at least a dozen you probably shouldn’t be on the road.

I don’t see why it should be a problem. There are a lot worse drivers out there.

I have an extremely expensive and loud sound system at which when properly used I can not hear a thing outside of my car. As long as you’re constantly checking your mirrors and aware of your surroundings sound is not really that much of an important issue.

Remember, emergency vehicles also have lights to accompany those sirens so you can still tell when you need to move out of the way. Horns are pretty useless to listen to while driving as well as the majority of the time I hear a horn is from people with road rage…

I would say driving while hearing impaired is no problem at all and that it would be stupid to make it illegal.

Case in point: i was on a code 3 call(lights and siren). people trapped in an auto crash. heavy, big instersection. everyone was moving over for my police car, except this one older gentleman in front of me. i even honked my police car horn to attract his attention. he would not move over and yield and i could not go around him because of oncoming heavy traffic. a motorcycle officer observed this situation and waved the old gentleman driver over. he was stone deaf and did not hear the siren or horn. he apologized and we let him go. this may have been just an isolated incident, but it does happen. this occured in the early morning, the sun was bright.

I have above-average hearing and I often don’t hear the ambulance from the noise of normal city life, people talking in the car and a low stereo volume. I’m not sure how much difference being deaf would make.

Plus there are visual clues as to whether an emergency vehicle is coming. People slow down and move over, traffic seems to hiccup a bit and pedestrians turn toward the sound.

Based on your example, I would think it wasn’t the man’s deafness that was the issue as much as his age and inability to notice environmental cues.

As @gemiwing points out, there are other cues when an emergency vehicle is approaching, so the example you give the hearing loss is only a portion of the problem… the man’s age which led to slower reactions, less alertness, and probable cognitive slowdowns were likely the bigger issue.

This is why I believe that driver re-testing should be mandatory from the age of 45… since that is when age related changes to vision are likely to have begun. Testing should be performed every 10 years until 65, then every 5 years until 80, then every 2 years thereafter. Since our state has provisional licenses for young drivers, I think they should also be available to elderly drivers… such as driving only when it’s light out.

My mother used to be a good driver, but now that she’s over 70, and drives much less than she used to, I notice that her skills behind the wheel have deteriorated. She is not a hazard to others, because she errs on the side of caution; but I know that she must surely annoy the people behind her!

@mowens: A friend of mine was once pulled over (a couple decades back) and warned about having her music too loud… but I don’t think there were or are any laws against it.

@davids: Get your hearing tested as a baseline, and retest in a few years… I’m curious to see what you’re doing to your ears. I am an Audiologist, and I often joke that I should keep a box of business cards to hand out to those with excessively loud car audio systems. My teenaged son can be heard approaching from up the block, and I always tell him “every day I work with people who wish they could have their hearing back”.

If not, then all stereo’s will have to be removed from cars.
I think its your right as a human being, at the end of the day if you don’t feel that your safe enough to be on the roads then this may have an impact on your driving confidence. Other than that keep driving, thats why emergency vehicles have lights.
Also its also the emergency vehicles driver that has a responsibility to look where he/she is going, even if you had fully functioning hearing, it doesn’t nesessarily mean your going to hear the sirens, or from which direction their coming from. My hearing is fine, and most of the time I have to consentrate to decifier which direction the siren is coming from.

@mowens See, the difference is, I can hear sirens over my music, and turn it off. You can’t turn off deafness without a hearing aid.

Common law right to travel even if your blind.
but under common law your fully liable for your own actions.

END OF.

of course

@john65pennington I think in tht case the chaps age and ability to drive safely because of his age should be taken into question and the fact that he was deaf is just one of the factores that should be taken into account. Old age causes people to be slower in their reactions which can lead to fatalities on the roads, their eyesight is not always as good as it was and, in this case, the hearing goes. Because of all of these things I believe that once drivers reach a certain age they should have to retake their tests every few years to ensure that they are safe to drive.

As far as hearing is concerned, I agree with @mowens that, if the law were to stop the deaf from driving then it should also stop us listening to music at a loud volume.

I believe one needs all senses intact to drive safely.

I guess I could be politically correct and insist deaf and blind people should be allowed to drive but I want to keep my car.

If a person he completely deaf, he can put some sort of visual device in his car sensitive to emergency sirens and horn beeps. Of course if he is that deaf, he should probably not be driving.

Most of us have some hearing loss especially heavy metal band affectionados. We cope and I definitely hear the sirens. They have a vision part on the drivers test, maybe there should be a hearing test too. Thanks for bringing it up, never thought about it.

I have hearing loss since I was two. As long as you have a hearing aid you’re fine. I find without hearing aids my concentration is slightly off. My awareness is lowered a lot. I don’t really know why. I think it’s because I rely a lot on the noise around me. It’s important that I hear everything around me. Hearing loss should not stop you from driving. Visual impairment doesnt stop people from driving so why should hearing loss. Just get the necessary adjustments, ie. glasses/hearing aids and then you should be fine. Don’t let hearing loss interfere with driving or any other aspect of your life. Hearing loss is not a danger to anyone. I mean what exactly do you need to hear while driving. The majority of driving relies on observation so the real question is should people with visual impairments be allowed to drive? Cos to me they pose more of a threat to road satety