Airbags and Sunglasses or Glasses

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blassberg

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Sep 30, 2005
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Warwickshire, UK
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ex C320CDI, ex SLK200K, Sharing Their Saxo 1.1i !!, Her SLK200K, His ZX6R
What experience is there from real accidents about people wearing (sun)glasses when their airbags go off?

What do the manufacturers suggest?

Are there safer designs of glasses that take this into consideration.

I need to buy some new sunnies and the 5 year test thread got me thinking...
 
Most likely get some more scratches to your face.

Compared to hitting your head on the dash at 40Mph+ its worth it.

Dont most airbags break your nose anyway?
 
I have been involved with the design on glasses and have designed and manufactured the associated injection mould tools that go with them, most glasses are plastic (polycarbonate) which is virtually unbreakable, they test the lenses by hitting a pointed hammer at them and the hammer no protrudes the lense such is the strength of this plastic, windows in prisons and in race cars are usually polycarbonate as it is nearly impossible to hit with a hammer and break. I think that if you had sunnies on and the airbag went off the most likely thing is that the sunnies would get blown or forced off you face so that your face hit the bag not your face with sunnies on, If the sunnies stayed on the worst thing would be abrasions/cuts/bruises from them being pressed into your face with the force of your head behind them, I would never think of them breaking and shardes of glass/plastic going into your eye which would adversly effect your eyesight, It is for this reason that I always buy Oakley, We were involved with lenses for safety glasses and they did do some with a blue tint but oakleys are the next best after ours when you look at light refraction. you can get prescription Oakleys if you need glasses glasses, but what about a prescription windscreen? resale value might drop as everybody who comes for a test drive will get a headache!
 
KillerHERTZ said:
Dont most airbags break your nose anyway?
I dout it very much, unless its the people who sit about 6 inch's away from the steering wheel with there head nearly resting on top of it.If you sit the correct distance from it I reckon the only thing you would suffer from is a tingling in the ears from when it went off.
 
A colleague at work's brother was involved in an accident where the airbag and seat belt tensioners went off - he suffered burns from the airbag and friction burns and bruising from the seatbelt. He also was told he was lucky his arms weren't crossed when the airbag deployed, or they may have both been broken, too.
 
Was a pax in an accident where the airbag went off - I wear glasses / sunnies & contacts but suffered due to the glasses. Bit of ringing in the ears, bruised shoulder, etc....

Was playing squash in safety glasses - ball hit me in the eye and drove the glasses into my face. About 12 stitches in all under the eye.....
 
I think the lesson here is NOT to buy cheapo imiatation designer type glasses as these will be made of anything BUT sensible material

It is a wise and sensible precaution to look after the eyes, but the posts here have been very reassuring.

Regards,
John
 
On a slightly different note, my Wife wears hard metalic hair clips to hold her hair at the back in a kind of pony tail thingy. :rolleyes: . We had to brake hard one day and when her head fell back into the headrest she cut her skin, we were only doing about 15mph in a traffic jam. Imagine what would of happened if we were going faster.

Maybe time to get that insurance sorted out ;)
 

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