Hearing and vision loss
Sensory injuries are objectively measurable, which makes them unusually provable. They are also frequently left out of claims entirely, because the person assumes ringing ears or blurred vision will pass.
Hearing
Airbag deployment produces a brief, extremely loud pressure event inside a closed cabin. Acoustic trauma and tinnitus following deployment are documented, and they are regularly dismissed by claimants as a side effect of a lucky escape.
- Tinnitus — persistent ringing, hissing or buzzing. Subjective in experience but testable, and genuinely corrosive to sleep and concentration over time.
- Noise-induced hearing loss, visible as a characteristic notch on an audiogram.
- Perforated eardrum from blast or pressure.
- Temporal bone fracture in severe head trauma, which can affect hearing and balance together.
- Vestibular injury — dizziness and balance problems originating in the inner ear rather than the brain, and treatable with specific therapy once correctly identified.
An audiogram and tinnitus matching give objective documentation. Hearing aids, where needed, are replaced on a cycle for life and should be costed accordingly rather than as a single purchase.
Vision
- Orbital fractures, which can trap eye muscles and cause double vision requiring surgical repair.
- Retinal detachment and traumatic cataract, which may appear some time after the trauma.
- Corneal injury from glass or airbag abrasion.
- Visual field loss after brain injury. Damage to the visual pathways produces field defects that the person often does not recognize — they simply bump into things on one side. It is detected by formal field testing and has direct consequences for driving.
- Convergence insufficiency and tracking problems after concussion, which make reading and screen work exhausting and are treatable with vision therapy once identified.
Questions people ask
My ears have rung since the airbag went off. Is that a real injury?
Yes. Airbag deployment is a loud pressure event in a closed space, and acoustic trauma and tinnitus following it are recognized. Get an audiogram and tinnitus assessment — it is objectively documentable, and persistent tinnitus has real effects on sleep and concentration.
My vision has been odd since the head injury but my eyes were checked and are fine.
A standard acuity check can be normal while the problem lies in the visual pathways or in eye coordination. Visual field testing and a neuro-optometric or vision therapy assessment look for field defects and convergence problems that routine testing misses.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
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