Woman’s car accident leads her to create brand of tough sunglasses
(WISH) — A Georgia woman has turned a tragic 2021 car accident into a mission of advocating for safer sunglasses.
Hanna Oliver was in a minor car accident. As a result, the sunglasses she wore shattered when the airbag deployed. Hannah lost her right eye just three months before her wedding. Online, she connected with hundreds of people who lost their eyes the same exact way, Oliver said in a recent interview.
She then set out to create her own line of polycarbonate sunglasses, called Blue Eye sunglasses, in the hopes of preventing the same thing from happening to others.
Oliver’s Blue Eye website says, “On August 3, 2021, I was involved in a car accident when my airbag deployed and my beautiful designer sunglasses that I cherished shattered: those multiple jagged shards of cheap plastic impaled my right eye causing it to deflate, detach from my retina, and severe my optic nerve.
“Until this point in my life, I thought wearing sunglasses would protect my eyes but little did I know the pair of sunglasses that sat less than a inch from my eye would be the reason I am partially blind.
“During the next year of my life I would endure six surgeries to repair the damage my sunglasses had caused. I have since learned this happens all too often to others not only through car accidents but through everyday occurrences.
“Blue Eye provides a safer yet stylish option when it comes to sunglasses: we offer high quality lenses that are shatter resistant from impacts, protecting you from UVA and UVB Rays all while setting a stylish trend. In addition, for each pair of Blue Eye sunglasses sold we will give back a portion of profits to eye research in hopes of helping others who have lost their eyesight.
“Sunglasses truly changed my life and now I hope that Blue Eye can change yours by being on the forefront of the Eyewear Industry. So come explore my collection and let us redefine the way you see the world through one pair of sunglasses at a time.”
RxSafety.com also sells Polycarbonate sunglasses. Its website says, “Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic resin first invented by German Dr. Hermann Schnelle in 1953. The outstanding property of polycarbonate is its incredible toughness; the material is not unbreakable, but it is shatterproof, and is many times more resilient than standard plastic. Because of this, polycarbonate shields, visors, and lenses quickly became popular for any sport or activity involving extreme conditions. Air craft canopies, bulletproof windows, motorcycle and football visors, and “bubble helmets” for NASA’s astronauts – a huge industry in the 1960s – are just a few of the practical applications that proved the worth and the strength of polycarbonate. It didn’t take long for the material’s popularity to infect the eyewear industry, and, to this day, polycarbonate is the go-to material for safety glasses or goggles.”