The need for motorcycle helmets has received a lot of attention. Of course, this attention is well deserved. The human skull is easily fractured by an unprotected fall from a motorcycle, and many unhelmeted motorcyclists die each year in accidents. However, eye protection doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Unlike helmets, which improve your survival prospects in a motorcycle accident, eye protection prevent motorcycle accidents.
How Eye Protection Prevents Accidents
The eye is a delicate structure that’s highly vulnerable to flying objects while riding at highway speeds. The most common projectiles are bugs. Hitting a bee or any flying insect with a hard exoskeleton at 65 mph can put your eye out. How this would affect your riding after the fact, is impossible to predict. Some people may safely get off the road, while others may veer into a car or go off the road. Impacting smaller insects might also cause enough distraction to cause an accident.
Flying stones and pebbles kicked up by tires can also put out an eye. Dust and grit picked up by the wind can quickly irritate the eyes to the point where the discomfort is too great a distraction for safe riding. Incessant wind blowing across the eyes at highway speeds may either cause excessive tearing, which makes vision blurry, or it can dry out the eyes. Chronically dry eyes can cause blurred vision, stinging, burning, and eye fatigue. All of these symptoms of dry eye syndrome prevent safe operation of your motorcycle.
Why Ordinary Glasses Don’t Protect the Eyes
Ordinary glasses and sunglasses don’t have the impact strength of eye protection designed for motorcycling. Motorcycling glasses must pass specific impact strength tests. Their lenses are either made from polycarbonate or Trivex, both of which are used in the canopies and windshields of military aircraft.
The frames of motorcycling glasses must also hold up to high impacts. During an impact, the frames themselves must remain intact and must retain both lenses. Ordinary street glasses weren’t designed for motorcycling use and may even injure the eyes when struck by a road projectile.
If you get into an accident that injures another party, not wearing eye protection may be considered contributory negligence. On the other hand, if someone injures you in a motorcycle accident because of negligence, you should get in touch with an experienced lawyer. For a free initial consultation, contact us.
