The sound is only a fraction of a second but that ringing you'll hear is the death sound of the frequency you'll likely never to be able to hear again.
You also need to understand that sound and loudness isn't what causes hearing loss it's the pressure shockwave.
If a blast "noise" is mostly outside of your hearing range the pressure will still do permanent damage.
When a bomb goes off most of the energy can very well be outside of the normal frequency range of the human ear, it will still however rip your ears apart.
or you'll hear it all the time
> Deployment of a driver’s side front airbag will generate mean peak sound pressure levels of approximately 160 dB (decibels).
> Studies have shown that the pain threshold from noise is about 140 dB and that a single exposure to sound pressure of this level can cause permanent, severe hearing loss.
> The deployment of a side airbag generates a mean peak sound air pressure of 178 dB.
So yeah ... a car crash will definitely mess with your hearing permanently.
[1]http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearinginternational/2012/th...
I think the problem in car crashes is probably the airbags though: airbag inflation is very loud. One article I found ( http://www.sae.org/standardsdev/tsb/cooperative/airbag.htm ) suggests 170dB, vs 140dB for the car crash itself.
170dB is well within the 'can cause permanent hearing loss' range. 140dB is 'this hurts' (and probably causes hearing loss).