Letters to the Editor: Drivers who block out outside noise endanger everyone on the road
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- Soundproofed cars and booming sound systems are making drivers oblivious to sirens, letter writers warn, turning “aural bliss” into a dangerous blind spot that imperils emergency crews and everyone nearby.
- One reader urges motorists to ditch in-car entertainment, keep the volume off and stay alert, arguing that anyone who needs a soundproof cocoon to drive should surrender their license.
- Another proposes a high-tech fix for L.A.’s crowded streets: require car audio systems to detect emergency signals, automatically cut music and broadcast siren sounds to prevent collisions.
To the editor: It’s about time someone developed a countermeasure to the self-absorption of drivers (“If you don’t hear the siren, police are sure you’ll feel the Rumbler,” Aug. 10).
All the auto manufacturers have done by creating what the article calls “aural bliss” is allow drivers to play their own sound systems without aural “interference” from outside, and in the process make themselves oblivious to what is happening on the road around them. Driving carries with it a responsibility to be aware of one’s surroundings; my own habits are not only to drive with the sound off, but also to engage in a self-entertaining monologue about all of the bone-headed actions that I observe in other drivers.
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen people enter an intersection even when an emergency vehicle is approaching on the cross street. If I can hear that siren from a block away, so should everyone else — unless, of course, they have shut themselves off from the world with their acoustically insulated ride.
If you can’t cope with driving without making the inside of your car soundproof against the outside, you need to turn in your license and stop driving. You are putting everyone at risk — not only the first responders, but also the rest of the people you share the road with.
Kymberleigh Richards, Van Nuys
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To the editor: L.A. has enough “rumbles” already, and this has already proven to be a problematic solution.
Legislators should enact rules to use modern electronics to prevent these life-threatening collisions. Require all our vehicle sound systems to have a built-in “code 3” scanner. When it detects a specially coded signal coming from an emergency vehicle, then it can shut off any sounds and instead emit an emergency vehicle sound.
I propose that constituents suggest this concept to their legislators. Then people with a vastly higher level of expertise in electronics and radio than I have can detail and polish this.
Scott Cline, Glendale
