Insurance with hearing aids

londonTiger

you are taught to drive without requring your hearing. All observations are visual.

Car_54

londonTiger wrote: »

you are taught to drive without requring your hearing. All observations are visual.

You may have been taught like that, but my pupils haven't.

Weren't you taught what to do when you hear an emergency vehicle?

londonTiger

Car_54 wrote: »

You may have been taught like that, but my pupils haven't.

Weren't you taught what to do when you hear an emergency vehicle?

You will see high intensity blue lights reflecting off everywhere and it will get brighter as the vehicles come close.

Sirens are also not very effective in inner city areas as the sound reflects off everwhere and you can mistake it for sirens coming from in front of you when it's actually from behind.

e.g. a big bus/HGV behind you so the sound cannot get to you directly, so the sound bounces from a building in front of you to you, and it sounds like the sound source is in front of you. But light does not deceive you like this and you would see the blue lights at their brightest on your wing mirror.

before you post a pedantic post about "oh so what about the reflective light". Well reflective light gets dimmer as it bounces from each surface so it leaves a visual trail where it's brigher from the source.

MysteryMe

Hearing is a very important sense when driving, especially in poor weather conditions such as black ice and surface water. Vital to be able to hear the noise the tyres are making on the road surface. It also tends to give one of the first clues to mechanical issues.

EdGasket

I think it very strange that you don't have to declare hearing loss as I would have thought it relevant to the insurance; more so than some of the other things you are supposed to declare like minor mods to the car. Same if you only have one eye because you obviously can't see as well as someone with two eyes and are less able to judge distances properly. Not wishing to bash those with these disabilities but it would seem when all said and done and other things being equal, that they are a greater risk than a person with 100% of their faculties.

dacouch

EdGasket wrote: »

I think it very strange that you don't have to declare hearing loss as I would have thought it relevant to the insurance; more so than some of the other things you are supposed to declare like minor mods to the car. Same if you only have one eye because you obviously can't see as well as someone with two eyes and are less able to judge distances properly. Not wishing to bash those with these disabilities but it would seem when all said and done and other things being equal, that they are a greater risk than a person with 100% of their faculties.

The Disablity Act applies to Insurers, it basically means they cannot discriminate against people with disabilities.

They can however apply loadings or terms where their own data indicates a certain disability can result in a higher claims incidence.

Most Insurers ignore most disabilities unless the DVLA has restricted the driving licence in which case they tend to look at the case more carefully and may apply terms etc. Typically certain types of diabetes would result in a restricted licence and can increase claims incidence.

Having hearing problems does not tend to affect your licence and is also unlikely to affect the amount of claims.

Incidently before the Act came in Insurers would typically accept someone who had lost their left eye but not their right eye. Try covering each eye up to see the difference it makes bearing in mind a rhd car

Car_54

londonTiger wrote: »

You will see high intensity blue lights reflecting off everywhere and it will get brighter as the vehicles come close.

Sirens are also not very effective in inner city areas as the sound reflects off everwhere and you can mistake it for sirens coming from in front of you when it's actually from behind.

e.g. a big bus/HGV behind you so the sound cannot get to you directly, so the sound bounces from a building in front of you to you, and it sounds like the sound source is in front of you. But light does not deceive you like this and you would see the blue lights at their brightest on your wing mirror.

before you post a pedantic post about "oh so what about the reflective light". Well reflective light gets dimmer as it bounces from each surface so it leaves a visual trail where it's brigher from the source.

So you weren't taught?

pullenuk

Deaf drivers are known to be better drivers due to higher awareness of visuals. So it will not affect insurance at all.

Blue light situations - I usually spot them far eariler than drivers behind because of the visual in mirrors etc.

Icy conditions I see far more hearing people who are capable of hearing the different in sound crash than deaf people. Also deaf drivers can feel the sound of the car so we don't need to hear it. So the above comment a load of rubbish.

You do not have to mention any hearing issues.

Dont let me come back to this topic with people saying deaf people are a higher risk. Its bad enough fighting for equality as it is. We are excellent drivers.

JP08

"Same if you only have one eye because you obviously can't see as well as someone with two eyes and are less able to judge distances properly."

You may be able to see better or worse. Will depend on the condition of all eyes concerned. In the event of all eyes concerned being equal, you will see equally well with one or two - unless some dust blows out of the heater vent. Getting something in an operational eye IS more serious when you can only see with one.

Re the distance, surprisingly, no.
Stereo vision is effective up to about 2m or so. One eyed people playing conkers is hilarious to watch, for example (and I speak from experience here having a one operational eyed parent !). Beyond that, the brain uses just relative distances and experience. And one eye is as good as two for that.