Can we drive with ear buds/headphones on?

I bought a pair of bluetooth headphones that I wear around my apartment. If I was still driving these things are so small and because they are close to flesh colored a cop would almost have to be at my window to see them. Even if it was legal I would not cover my ears or even play the radio very loud because I never wanted one of my senses blocked like that. This is one of those topics like the post/pre trip one. Don't really matter to me if it is legal or not. Just not smart to do it.

 

Here's info on state laws regarding headphone use. https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/headsets/

 

And drive 18 wheelers.

Because we can hear in a range of 500 hertz, 1000 hertz and 2000 hertz at 40 db or better in a secured audiology sound proof room.

If you want some fun other than burning up of bad headphones try the following...



Even if I was all deaf the Union Pacific has tuned the train horn to penetrate my vehicle and create a bad situation in the body itself which I pick up pretty fast and identify it. Sound is not the only sense we use. First up would be the eyes especially as replacement and the skin next for sounds loud enough to be a problem. Teeth in particular and feet most especially.

The deaf were not allowed to drive period until roughly the late 60's early 70's time period within my lifetime. The day I got my Class A from passing all trucking tests in the DMV in the late 80's resulted in about several hundred then living of my overall family disowning me because they will be G-Dmed if a Deaf Person will drive much less a 18 wheeler on their highway. (They have had a life time in which deaf were put out of the way of the home so they literally are not seen or dealt with) Since they are strictly blood kin and offered nothing else it is not a problem with me.

Hearing aids of sufficient quality and power is the first line. My last two sets going back 34 years total was able to produce a hearing situation superior to my wife's own. When she got into the glass cookie jar at night I came out to check out the noise. I got her a thousand cookies once we finished laughing.

Some trucking bosses were discrimatory towards the deaf. One in DM Bowman at Frederick made a bad mistake hiring a deaf for his particular kind of trucking and it did not end well. He thought I was going to flame out as well and got him educated in the deaf culture versus hearing world. I was one of his top drivers for a time. Never failed to put up a load 3 to 4 times a day and hardly any problems to speak of. Its not that big of a deal especially when satellite qualcomm showed up. That eliminated errors in telephone dictation. It did not however eliminate errors in dispatch, but everything got documented from then on.

There is a percentage of deaf by IQ tests who are excluded from our Free Society after they were handed diplomas and thought to have graduated. My own graduation with about 20+ in my class was not particularly challenging with 4 exceptions who were very very very good students and superior to me in certain subjects. Thats why I don't talk about being valedictorian or any of those ceremonial grade based BS honors. If they are interested they can find out for themselves off my HS script.

Even did a bit of flight. The two main things about that is using a particular transponder to show radio out. And thus bans controlled airspace such as say Dulles. With certain pathways that are allowable over and through that airspace. But to me as a deaf person barring a all out emergency Dulles is closed to me. and that can be accessed with another 4 digit transponder code which probably will give approach a very bad day considering. It can be improved on the overall communications. Washington Center is one of the more intense parts of our Nation's Skies what with DC and Camp David along with several other sites as absolute no go zones.

Being deaf is not the worst of living. You can go to bed and your neighbors can shoot artillery on the 4th july and its not a problem. get some sleep. Same with a big truck. But if you put a foot on any step anywhere on that airride I will wake up very fast and know roughly where you are at.

I can go on but rather not today. There is plenty of other material on my end as a Deaf Trucker. There has unfortunately not been too many of these. I think 4 in total. 2 were in construction and that sort of thing with their own trucking company for that purpose. And myself and at least one other in OTR work. I simply don't know of any others who managed to escape the cultured least restrictive freedom of the deaf school and got into running around the USA as a deaf person in trucking. They keep telling everyone if you do good in life you will be a superintendent someday which was in our time a popular leadership position held by M. Denton who was very good at what he did until the PC forces in the 90's ousted him from that position.

What they did not tell us was there can only be one super. The rest of us will just have to scratch out a living best we can.