Air bags and Eyeglasses. Bad combination?

Factual Questions
1

I’m going to be getting a new car soon. (Not “new” new, but maybe a couple of years old at most.)

My current car does not have air bags. My new one likely will.

I wear eyeglasses which I really shouldn’t drive without. Should I worry about severe injury to my eyes if those airbags were to ever deploy while I’m driving?

2

The airbags are designed to deploy primarily in the chest & neck area – to be in between your heart & lungs & rib cage and the steering column.
And in any case, your face with eyeglasses going into the airbag is better than hitting the windshield!

3

My face was (apparently) very close to the airbag when I hit the telephone pole and totalled my car. I say apparently because the cause of the accident was a seizure so I wasn’t actually conscious for that part of the accident. The frame of my glasses were bent and one lens shattered, but they hadn’t hurt me.
-Lil

4

Correction: they are designed to deploy in this manner for a 5’ 10" male - the “average human being” they used as standard.

If, like me, you are a 1/2 foot shorter than that, an airbag will deploy in your face.

If someone is greatly concerned about eyeglasses+airbag they should inquire about getting impact-resistant lenses that, even if they break, will not shatter. These are available in quality optometrist shops everywhere. Ask your Eyecare Professional for details.

Even so, a faceful of airbag is preferable to traveling through a windshield or being impaled on a steering column. A broken nose and raccoon eyes heal much better than being sliced up or having to have structural components of your car removed from your structual components.

Of course, it’s much preferable to not get in the accident in the first place, but that’s not always possible.

5

Just to throw this in:

I was in a wreck that totalled my Acura - I wasnt wearing a seatbelt AND I was wearing glasses. The bag hit me in the face and bent the eyeglass rims a bit, but it didn’t cut me or do any serious damage save a couple of red marks. Thinking back, I’m sure I was terrified that the lenses would shatter and blind me, but glasses are tougher than ya think…

Again, I’m sure every wreck is different. I was doing 50mph or so when I wrecked, I’m sure people can be hurt more or less depending on the situation.

Just my two cents…

D.

6

Slight hijack - I’ve heard about the effect of airbags on shorter people but what danger is there, if any, to those taller than average?

7

CanadianDriver: “Ophthalmology association reports risk of eye injuries from airbags very low”

8

While I’m sure it would be cost prohibitive, has serious consideration ever been given to making a prescription windshied, or at least a bifocal portion for the driver?

9

I can’t imagine that anyone would do this.

Some obvious problems:

  • only that one person can drive the car.
  • even that one person would have trouble – they would have to keep their head in the exact same position all the time they are driving.
  • modern windshields are made of a glass/plastic/glue combination that is quite different from prescription glass – don’t even know if it would be possible to “grind a windshield to prescription”.
  • given the distance between the person’s eyes and the windshield, it might have to be much thicker (like a few inches of glass) to focus appropriately on their cornea.
  • resale value of such a car would be about nothing.
  • what’s the point? People have been driving cars while wearing glasses for about a century now, and seem to do so just fine.