I was at a light waiting for a left turn. Light changed and I started making the turn. The setting sun caught me directly in the eyes. I’ve never been blinded so badly before.
I hit a car, head on waiting to make a left on that other road. I was at least 6 feet too far over, towards the middle of that road. I cut my wheels much too hard.
I’ve never worn sunglasses except on the water. Car visor and squinting has always worked. I was reaching for the Car Visor just as I hit that car.
Now I’m wondering if my age is catching up with me. That sun glare was Painful! It was at the worst possible angle to catch me square in the eyes. Very similar to the horrible glare you encounter driving a boat or visiting a sandy beach.
How Badly does Sun Glare effect your driving vision?
Yup, my rates will go up next year. My insurance has told me the other party wasted no time in retaining a lawyer. Sigh…
Really glad I was only rolling maybe 3 to 5 mph. I bent my bumper and it was pressed onto the tire. Tow truck guy threw a chain around it and pulled it straight with his truck. Drives fine. I want to get the front end aligned and confirm there’s no hidden damage.
Other car crumpled. That’s why I don’t drive a compact. The bigger vehicle usually has less damage after fender benders.
It bothers me a lot, not in the sense of actually preventing me from seeing things, but in terms of eye pain. UV and sunlight and bright light has always hurt my eyes seemingly more than other people’s.
Do we typically get more sensitive to glare after cataract surgery?
My ophthalmologist has been checking my early cataracts annually for several years. I’m probably two or three years away from surgery. I see him again in August, fingers crossed that he doesn’t say “it’s time”.
I hope that doesn’t mean sun glasses all the time outdoors. The dangers of UV and our eyes wasn’t as well understood when I was a teen. I regret not wearing Transitional prescription lenses to protect from UV.
I may get Transitional prescription lenses again. I had a pair in the nineties that worked well. But they didn’t darken as much inside a car. That might be a problem.
Transitions
Transitions Xtractive will tint to 50% in a car, clear to a very faint gray.
Drivewear starts an olive oil green/yellow, goes copper inside a car and darken to a red/brown outdoors. Also polarized. Not for night driving
Although my understanding is that modern lens replacements have some built in UV protection but I could be wrong on that. Post-surgery you are getting more light into your eyes so sure, everything is brighter. Including glare.
Me, I apparently have no sign of cataracts but I wear sunglasses pretty much any time I’m outdoors in daylight. I hate eye pain. And glare. I have multiple pairs of polarized sunglasses (polarization helps a lot, too) so even if I forget my main pair I have back ups in both vehicles.
And you expected what, sympathy? Extenuating circumstances leading to a smaller claim?
I always wear sunglasses outdoors unless it’s so cloudy it looks like it’s about to rain. My eyes are sensitive to bright light, and my irises don’t close as far or as fast as they should. That’s on me to be responsible for when I choose to drive. Also, if I can’t see, I stop moving until I can.
So sorry, mate, my sympathy for your situation is very limited.
I voted for “visor is enough protection”, though on some rare occasions, say when rounding a hill into a low setting sun, you are so absolutely blinded that it isn’t safe, regardless of one’s vision or sensitivity to glare or sunglasses or whatever. There are moments when it’s simply impossible to see anything.
My biggest problem in my older age is those fucking LED headlights that most cars have now, the kind that can fucking blind you in broad daylight, like when they’re high-mounted on a manly pickup truck directly behind you. When they’re in the opposing lane at night, they’re extremely annoying and often blinding. I understand that they emit the bright-blue spectrum because it helps the drivers see better in foggy conditions, but it also helps to blind drivers going the other way, thank you very much. :mad:
It depends. Heading directly into a rising or setting sun is a pain in my ass even with sunglasses; most other times I don’t even notice. I get more glare from the chrome at the top of my triple-tree than I do from the sun itself.
Yes, they get more sensitive a few days after surgery. But…
You haven’t had surgery. So why is that a factor?
I had both my eyes fixed last year, and in retrospect
I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did. The idea about someone cutting the eye is a lot worse than the actual procedure. Setting the thing that kept the eyelid open hurt more than the actual surgery, which in fact didn’t hurt at all.
My eyesight still let me drive. When I compared a few days after the first eye and realized how badly I saw with the one that hadn’t been fixed, I know I shouldn’t have been driving at all.
You’re in a southern state right? Get the surgery or get off the road. From what you’re telling, you’re not only a danger to yourself, but to others as well.
I ALWAYS wear sunglasses when I’m outside. It’s just what you do when you live at high altitude and get a lot of snow. The snow makes it much worse.
With that said, if the sun is right in your line of vision, just rising or setting, nothing short of a welding helmet will help (and then you wouldn’t see anything else of course). At that point you must have something, your visor or a hat to try to keep it out of your line of sight. If the sun is right behind what you are trying to look at, you are SOL (no pun intended).
Yup. I won’t do it. As I said, I don’t go outside without them. I buy good ones. Really the only way to go. And in the long run, I think cheaper than buying off the rack at where ever. You pay attention to where your $300 sunglasses are. And they are a heck of a lot better than the $10 pair.
Glad I saw this thread. My sunglasses are getting a little beat up. As I said, I wear them every day, won’t leave the house without them. I’ve had them for about 10 years. I ordered a new pair.
If anyone cares, I just ordered these Not $300, $210. Same sunglasses I’ve had for 10 years.
I’m in no way affiliated with any sunglass manufacture. But I really recommend getting good ones. Not only will they last, but the optics are better. You will be likely to take better care of them as well.
To continue, they don’t just protect your eyes from UV and allow you to see better, they also protect you from the odd flying object or eye poke.
My insurance has told me the other party wasted no time in retaining a lawyer. Sigh…