Advocacy & Safety - Cyclist injured after hit in eye

A cyclist here in Windsor, Ontario was injured Sunday night after being struck in the eye with a "projectile". The 20 yr. old cyclist was travelling, on the road, around 11 PM when he heard a popping noise and felt a hard object strike him in the right eye. Police say the projectile may have been a paint ball fired by a paint ball gun but haven't determined precisely what the projectile was or how it was fired. Police are looking for an older model black pickup truck with a large toolbox in the bed. What are your experiences with being hit by projectiles while riding?


I'd provide a link to the story but our wonderful local paper only provides on-line story access to subscribers.

Thats pretty sh*tty. Take all kinds doesn't it. If they ever catch the SOB, there are a number of charges that can be laid under Canada's criminal code, some relating to firearms. Nevermind that, the victim can then turn around and lay civil charges, I imagine a paintball in the eye, could permanantly ruin your eyesight. Here's hoping they catch the person responisible.

Somewhat off topic. Example, a student at a local downtown T.O. university was charged and arrested a few years ago for firing a paint ball gun sniper style out his room window at people walking through the courtyard. He was caught, police were called and he was charged with assault with a weapon, improper care and storage of a fire arm, pointing a firearm, mischief and a few others.

As a further side note...This individual was almost finished his engineering program. Because of the charges he's no longer bondable, he'll never be able to apply to become employed in his feild of study, as an engineer.

Well it would be pretty easy to tell it's a PAINT ball if you got hit by one. Could've been a BB gun too.
But it also could've been a rock thrown off the wheel of a passing car or truck or something that flew or fell off a truck. When I got my armadillos for my mtb, I was launching pebbles left and right off my tires at cars, people, etc, cause those things were so hard.

Lesson one: Always wear eye protection.
Lesson two: Shoot back.

Lesson one: Always wear eye protection.
Lesson two: Shoot back.

I concur with lesson one, at least.

Wearing things in front of your eyes screws up the depth perception.
Whenever I wear sunglasses, I invariably walk into things, simply because the glasses distort the field of view.
I wouldn't dream of getting on a bike with any form of impaired vision.

Wearing things in front of your eyes screws up the depth perception.
Whenever I wear sunglasses, I invariably walk into things, simply because the glasses distort the field of view.
I wouldn't dream of getting on a bike with any form of impaired vision.

I've always ridden bikes with eye protection and have never had any sort of imparment.

I read the story I also live in Windsor. When I ride I usually wear a pair of sunglasses or a pair of blue safety glasses that are great on over cast days and at night the best part is they only cost me 5.00. I have had some things throwen at me but luckly have never been hit

Wearing things in front of your eyes screws up the depth perception.
Whenever I wear sunglasses, I invariably walk into things, simply because the glasses distort the field of view.
I wouldn't dream of getting on a bike with any form of impaired vision.

You're either wearing the wrong glasses or you need your vision checked out.
I work with cheap $1 goggles in the machine shop all the time. If they can keep me from cutting my own fingers off, then can keep you from walking into things.

My vision is just fine
Put on a regular pair of sunglasses, and move them up and down in front of your eyes. The curvature of the glass makes them enlarge what you see through them, and that distorts your field of view.
If you don't see any difference when you do that, it's your eyes there's something wrong with...

My vision is just fine
Put on a regular pair of sunglasses, and move them up and down in front of your eyes. The curvature of the glass makes them enlarge what you see through them, and that distorts your field of view.
If you don't see any difference when you do that, it's your eyes there's something wrong with...

It could be the glasses in your area. The good ones here are designed with the lens curved so that doesn't happen. The first Performance Radials even had that in the paragraph about them.

My vision is just fine
Put on a regular pair of sunglasses, and move them up and down in front of your eyes. The curvature of the glass makes them enlarge what you see through them, and that distorts your field of view.
If you don't see any difference when you do that, it's your eyes there's something wrong with...

Repeat: If it's affecting you so much you're walking into things, you need to get ur eyes checked out.

The curvature is what's causing the refraction. Perfectly flat glasses wouldn't be a problem. That or extremely thin glasses.
The reason I walk into things is that a) they enlarge things, altering the percieved depth, b) the rims block downward peripheral vision, which is where most things to walk into are...
Neither has anything to do with my eyes. I have a very mild astigmatism and a very slight nearsightedness, but I still score 0.95 out of 1.0 on our scale. 0.5 is where you're required to wear glasses to drive. 0.95 would probably equal 20/21 vision.

If you are moving them up and down then I would expect the vision to be distorted with the curvature in the glasses. I look straight out with the glasses up to my eyes and move my head to see clearly in your peripheral(sp?) area if needed. Only problem I ever have is at the bottom of the lense at the gap between my cheek and lens and most of the time I never notice that even.
edit - just saw the new posts while I was writing this and Cdcf I use noframe glasses and have not had a problem. Only paid 10$ for them too. You ever tried any of that style?

Only partly solves problem b.
But yes, I have tried them.
Of course I can move my head around, it's just that I never do that when I don't wear glasses (arachnophobia does wonders for your peripheral vision :D ), and I don't wear any often enough to get used to a different "scan pattern".

Another thing I don't like is that all sunglasses have non-neutral tints.
Very annoying. I could get a pair of expensive Ray-Bans with perfectly neutral grey, but I'd rather spend that money on bike upgrades... :)

It would be useful to have something, though.
I often get flying insects in my face, and sometimes also in my eyes.
When I was a kid, I remember ingesting a few bugs a day just from riding around... :)

Only partly solves problem b.
But yes, I have tried them.
Of course I can move my head around, it's just that I never do that when I don't wear glasses (arachnophobia does wonders for your peripheral vision :D ), and I don't wear any often enough to get used to a different "scan pattern".

Another thing I don't like is that all sunglasses have non-neutral tints.
Very annoying. I could get a pair of expensive Ray-Bans with perfectly neutral grey, but I'd rather spend that money on bike upgrades... :)

It would be useful to have something, though.
I often get flying insects in my face, and sometimes also in my eyes.
When I was a kid, I remember ingesting a few bugs a day just from riding around... :) LOL just wait till you get a big bee or some other stinging insect or a piece stone or worse head shot with a bird eye protection stops you from losing your eye sight ( scary thought ) but your choice .Steeker

LOL just wait till you get a big bee or some other stinging insect or a piece stone or worse head shot with a bird eye protection stops you from losing your eye sight ( scary thought ) but your choice .Steeker

If I didn't wear eye protection, I'd be impaired from seeing due to the tears. I'd also imagine having some sort of projectile lodged in my eyeballs would tend to impair my vision a bit too.

I've been shot at with a BB gun when I was a teenager. I heard the BBs hit a signpost as I rode by. I slowed and saw two guys run into the house. Other than that I've been lucky (touch wood).

8am class in the winter chill will have me tearing up bad without glasses. I don't like wearing sunglasses while riding in the city so I always wear the cheap nashabr clear/no-frame glasses. Works good enough for me. It took me a while to get used to it. First half hour with them on the bike sucked in traffic though as I felt unusually high up on the cycle.

I love my glasses. I can't count the number of hard bugs like grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles etc that have
tried to fly into my eyes while riding. Unfortunately I do swallow a few of the pesky bastards. :/

I love my glasses. I can't count the number of hard bugs like grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles etc that have
tried to fly into my eyes while riding. Unfortunately I do swallow a few of the pesky bastards. :/

You need mouthglasses.

I agree, anyone who is walking into things, or even having their eyesight noticably altered, by sunglasses or safety glasses, needs to get their eyes checked and/or start paying more than $10 for glasses. There are some horribly bad sunglasses on the market that do distort vision, but it's not universal. And yes, if you take even good glasses and move them up and down, they will distort the image. But that's because GOOD glasses are radial. From the center of your eyeball, they should always present a uniform thickness of material. If you look at them on parallel lines and move them up and down, of course they're going to cause distortion. That's not what they're designed for. In fact, it's probably the crappy glasses that WON'T cause much distortion in these cases.

My current glasses are stylin, but they're too small. I've had bees and other large bugs fly between my eyebrow ridge and the glasses 3 or 4 times this year. I'm buying goggles soon.

Sweden must be bug free. If I didn't wear eye protection even in low light conditions, I'd have eyes full of bugs - now that is serious vision impairment!

It might well be that only cheap glasses have this distortion.
I haven't tried anything more expensive than around $20 worth.

We're not bug free, no, but it's not that bad.
Most of them are tiny flying insects, like mosquitoes or smaller.

One thing I'm thinking about is the kind of protective goggles I used to wear in chemistry class. They looked like this, only with no colour:
http://www.geocities.com/muldoon432/ODDATA.gif
They would cover most of the "critical" area.

i work for a metal shop, i wear my safety glasses to and from work. from about 5celcius and below, my ears tear-up pretty bad without them. also keeps dirt and mud kicked up from my bike and other vehicles from blinding me.

One thing I'm thinking about is the kind of protective goggles I used to wear in chemistry class. They looked like this, only with no colour:
http://www.geocities.com/muldoon432/ODDATA.gif


Get a smoked color pair and you'll blend in with all the old farts.

Get a smoked color pair and you'll blend in with all the old farts.

But you'll also need the complimentary metal detector too. ;)