Woman issues urgent warning after she loses eye in minor car accident

One woman has issued an urgent warning to fellow drivers about what they wear when behind the wheel after tragically losing her eye in a minor car accident.

Hannah Oliver, who hails from the US, has used her story to shed some awareness on how one seemingly innocent fashion choice can leave you with permanent, life-altering injuries.

The 29-year-old business owner revealed it was something people 'do all the time' while driving without having a clue of the potential dangers attached to donning the common accessory.

Now, we should all know about the dangers of wearing a claw clip when in the car by now, but did you know sunglasses also pose a pretty big danger too?

Well, this was exactly the case for Hannah who, back in August 2021, had been in her car and was travelling at just 25mph when she ended up in a collision with another motorist.

While it was only a 'minor car accident', the accident had major some pretty major consequences for her.

The Atlanta resident explained that another driver had pulled out in front of her and slammed on his brakes, but she 'did not react fast enough' and ended up smashing into the back of him.

Hannah opened up about the ordeal on TikTok, telling viewers: "When that happened, my airbag came out. It hit my precious designer sunglasses and they shattered into a million pieces."

The next thing she could remember was looking in her rearview mirror only to discover one of her eyes had been 'shredded' and 'looked like it had gone through the garbage disposal'.

"My eye was gone, it deflated on impact. My optic nerve was severed and my retina was detached. All of the glass had shredded my eye into pieces," she explained.

Hannah went on to have six surgeries to reconstruct her eye and now wears a prosthetic, which she got back September 2022.

Following the ordeal that 'changed her whole life', Hannah has since been inspired to start up her own company called Blue Eye, which sells a line of shatter-resistant sunglasses in the hopes of saving someone else from going through the same thing she did.

Using her platform to share information on the potential risks of shattering shades, Hannah continued: "I think its crazy that people don't know your sunglasses can do this. Over 75% of them are made with either plastic, nylon or glass lenses, which will shatter right on impact.

"What's even more nuts, is the fact that these sunglasses manufacturers could produce shatter resistant lenses for literally pennies but they chose not to. Now that I only have one eye, I have to protect what I have left.

"It literally took me to six surgeries to get to this and now I'm partially blind and I've got to live with this for the rest of my life, all because of some designer sunglasses that I thought were cute on my face, that I thought was going to protect me, but they didn't."

Hannah donates a percentage of each purchase to eye research charities to help others who have lost their eyesight.

People were clearly touched by Hannah's experience and her admirable decision to use her story to inform others, praising her resilience in the comments.

One TikTok user said: "No claw clips, no sunglasses - got it!"

"My Ray-Ban's exploded like that on a hard floor," shared a second. "I've always had cheap plastic ones before, it was a wake up call for sure."

A third chimed in: "Oh my goodness. I live in my sunglasses and never knew or thought of this! I'll be checking your range out ASAP."

"Terrified to wear my glasses now," admitted a fourth while a final TikTok user penned: "Crazy because you think you're protecting your eyes with them too."