Eye injuries in road traffic accidents

Sixty-four cases of road traffic accidents with eye injury were seen between January, 1966 and April, 1971. Fifty-one of these cases were studied in detail. Most of the accidents involved frontal collision with another vehicle and produced eye injuries to the unbelted driver or the front seat passenger. Ninety per cent of the eye injuries in this series were caused by tempered glass windscreen. Perforating injuries that are bilateral or involve the expulsion of the lens at the time of accidents have the worse visual prognosis. The mechanism of eye injuries is discussed. Most of the injuries can be prevented by wearing safety belts and installing high penetration resistant laminated glass windscreens.