In This Article
Background
On Aug. 3, 2021, Hannah Oliver was driving home from her parents' house wearing her favorite sunglasses.
"I got on South Cobb [Drive] and was going down the road, and a guy pulled out in front of me, slammed on the brakes," Oliver says. "I couldn't react fast enough. As soon as I hit him, the airbag came out, and it just hit my sunglasses right at the right angle, I guess. And they shattered on impact."
"It deflated my eye on impact," she says. "My retina was detached, and my optic nerve was severed, so there was no coming back."
This story has been picked up by many news organizations, and Hannah wrote about it herself in the Guardian.
She went viral on Tiktok and her story spread far and wide. A large sunglasses channel on YouTube even did a video on it where the host swore to never wear glass lenses while driving because of this risk.
What is interesting about Hannah's story isn't the horrific nature of her accident. It is not the common occurrence of ocular injury caused by car accidents.
The interesting twist in the story is that Hannah has opened her own sunglass brand focused on "safe" polycarbonate lenses to help others avoid the tragic accident she went through.
A story of hope out of the ashes.
"I haven’t been able to work for the last year because of the accident, but my new goal is to release my own sunglasses line made out of shatter-resistant polycarbonate lenses. I think every company should have a disclaimer stating that sunglasses can shatter on impact."
I am sure Hannah has the best of intentions. She has come out of a horrible life-altering ordeal that I cannot imagine going through.
However, it is worth asking if the risk of wearing glass lenses while driving is really something to be concerned about or if it is a freak accident we should not alter our behavior for. Do the statistics indicate there is a serious risk?
What is the Risk?
First of all, what exactly is the risk? It is a fact that the theoretical risk of injury is present. What would we be concerned about?
In the event of an accident, several risks could be a factor in this regard. The airbag could hit the face and break the lenses which could then splinter into the face. Glass shards from a broken windshield could also fly into the lens and in turn break it. Other projectiles from inside or outside the car could also be the culprits.
Now, it's important to keep in mind that front seat airbags are designed and aimed at a fully grown adult's chest region, not at his head. If it was head, the airbag impact would break the person's neck.
So a majority of the impact is taken by your chest. In a properly seated car, you don't really have to worry about glasses getting crushed by airbag. A bigger worry would be if glasses get knocked off your eyes and get jammed sharply in any part of your body. (Even those chances are pretty slim).
As long as glasses are on your eyes, airbags pose low safety concerns. Anyone telling you otherwise doesn't know about car safety.
What Do the Studies Say?
But what do the studies say?
A Finnish study in 2003 is the best data we have on this specific question.
(Do Motor Vehicle Airbags Increase Risk of Ocular Injuries in Adults?
Lehto KS, Sulander PO, Tervo TM
Ophthalmology. 2003;110(6):1082-1088)
The study concludes:
"Automobile airbags have been shown to reduce the risk of fatality in motor vehicle accidents. Airbag deployment may cause ocular injury by direct mechanical forces such as by compressing spectacles, which could cause additional injury -- and by chemical injury from the reaction necessary to cause inflation of the bag.
The authors of this retrospective observational study reviewed the records of airbag-associated eye injuries in Finland, where every fatal accident is investigated by the Finnish Motor Insurers Center, and where nonfatal accidents involving airbags were registered between 1993 and 1997 by the police department. Other sources included a review of 62 case reports describing 110 patients with eye injury after airbag deployment and a review from the authors' own records of 331 individuals in motor vehicles accidents, from which they culled those where an airbag was deployed.
Review of the literature revealed that airbag-associated injuries were no more likely in patients who wore glasses compared with those who did not, but open-globe injuries were statistically more common in spectacle wearers. Spectacle wearers appeared to have a lower risk of chemical-associated injury. In the Finnish study, the risk of airbag-associated eye injury was 2.5% for any injury and 0.4% for a severe injury.
The risk of airbag-associated eye trauma appears to be low and no greater for spectacle wearers compared with nonwearers."
Another study was done of 89 cases of ocular injury where only 15 were even wearing glasses of some sort. None of the injuries were caused by shattered glass to the eye from the eye glasses.
In another study, hospital emergency room records were reviewed retrospectively for a period of 4 years for patients who had sustained ocular injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Those injuries associated with airbag inflation were analyzed as to the nature of the injury, type of vehicle, speed, and visual morbidity.
Fourteen cases of ocular injury related to airbag inflation were identified. Hyphema (nine cases) and cornea abrasion (eight cases) were the most common. Three cases, all patients who had been wearing glasses, sustained serious and permanent ocular damage.
Three cases in four years. In a population of millions who drive every day.
What about the legal profession? Personal Injury Lawyers must have gone after companies that make products not properly labeled for common risks, right?
Well, here, here, here, and here all list many risks and injuries that they are happy to fight for you for. Some very rare incidents. But none of them mention sunglasses breaking. Doesn't seem to be something they come across even infrequently.
No sunglasses companies issue any warnings about this. Would seem to be a legal risk if it was something consumers should consider. But it doesn't seem to be something to worry about
Let's Get Real - Glass Sunglasses are Not Dangerous to Drive With
Let's talk about the actual risks and what we should be worried about.
The odds of this kind of freak accident happening are extremely low and we shouldn’t let fringe cases scare us from living life normally.
There are hundreds of millions of people in North America and Europe who drive many times each day. Millions wear glass lenses from brands like Maui Jim, Costa Del Mar, Serengeti etc. Serengeti even makes a fantastic glass lens called the "drivers" lens.
You can swim in the ocean and not be paralyzed with fear of sharks. If we won’t wear glass lenses while driving we shouldn’t wear them crossing the street either. People can look at the stats themselves and they’ll see they have a better chance of winning the lottery than having their glass lenses break and damage their eyes. Costa Del Mar sunglass wearers wear their glass lenses fishing and can get hit in the face hard many times, but this doesn't seem to result in many hospital visits.
This is not a "better be safe than sorry" situation. It is irrational to take action based on fear and not based on a solid risk assessment. You have almost nothing to fear about wearing glass lenses when driving. Remember, your windshield is made of glass and can shatter on impact as well. Don’t live life afraid of fringe cases.
It’s not impossible for it to happen but it’s so rare that we should not change our behavior over it. We can’t live based on rare anecdotes. And we cannot scaremonger about fringe cases, especially if we are then selling products to the people we are scaring. Products, it should be noted, that are already widely available. Polycarbonate lenses have been easy to purchase for decades. Oakley's lenses are all polycarbonate.
I wear a seatbelt because that’s been proven to save lives and the stats bear it out. There are thousands who die every year in car accidents and seat belts have reduced that likelihood significantly. That is a risk worth reducing. For glass lenses while driving there is no known risk to avoid.
We can only find a handful of cases where there was an incident of ocular injury due to glass lenses in sunglasses while driving. I can find you much more terrible instances of accidents while swimming, bathing, and walking your dog.
Over 100 people drown every year in bathtubs. I hope you still shower.
Just because there is a chance of something happening people do not necessarily need to take action to avoid it. That’s not scientific or rational. Just because there is a remote risk of something doesn’t mean it should generally be avoided. We cannot just think emotionally. We need actual data to back up our actions. One lady's story shouldn’t change the behavior of hundreds of millions of people.
Keep in mind the frames are also a risk of causing blunt-force injury in the event of an accident. So even wearing any sunglasses of any lens can be an issue if this is your fear.
Even other lens materials aren't much safer, and in some ways can be less safe than glass. CR-39 will ALWAYS have very sharp pointy shards. A properly tempered glass lens will break into small chunks. A chemically strengthened or case-hardened glass lens is far less likely to break than a CR-39 lens is (talking mainly plano and minus power lenses -- plus power lenses are almost certainly more impact resistant regardless of the material). It is a characteristic of the strengthening/hardening process.
The key concept, I believe, is not about the actual lens breaking. Its about quantifying the potential for additional contribution to eye or facial injury after it breaks.
And Hannah Oliver herself? She was wearing sunglasses with PLASTIC lenses! If you go to the "ABOUT US" section of her website Blue Eye Sunglasses, she says that it was plastic shards in her eye, not glass.
Conclusion
After thoroughly examining the facts, it is evident that the risk of ocular injury from glass lenses in sunglasses during car accidents is extremely low. Glass sunglasses are not dangerous to drive with. Studies, including the Finnish study, demonstrate that airbag-associated injuries are not significantly higher for spectacle wearers. Legal cases and medical records corroborate this rarity.
While Hannah Oliver's tragic experience is heart-wrenching and her advocacy for safer polycarbonate lenses is commendable, it is crucial to base our decisions on comprehensive data, not isolated incidents. The likelihood of such an injury is so minuscule that it does not warrant altering our behavior.
We must remain rational and grounded in evidence. Let’s not succumb to fear driven by fringe cases but instead, make informed choices. Wearing glass lenses while driving poses no significant threat and should not be a cause for concern. Live life without unnecessary fear—continue enjoying your favorite sunglasses with confidence.
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