Safety question regarding vision
 

I have a fairly interesting (I hope) predicament regarding my vision, eyeglasses, and safety at my regional in the next few days, and I was wondering if you safety experts could help me out.

Last Friday, I broke my glasses beyond repair at a concert. Since then, my only pair of corrective lenses is a pair of polarized sunglasses. Darkened lenses present a slight safety hazard at FIRST events, and assuming I don't get a new pair of glasses tomorrow morning, may cause trouble for me at Connecticut.

In the worst case scenario, I have three choices:

1. Wear my sunglasses and safety glasses, the darkness causing a safety hazard.
2. Wear no lenses and safety glasses, blurry nearsighted vision causing a safety hazard.
3. Do not enter CT's pit area, adversely affecting my team's performance

Which is the most reasonable and safest option? Does anyone have suggestions for other measures I could take?

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

I would go with the normal safety glasses option. For the future to prevent something like this it may be in your best interest to invest in safety glasses with prescription lenses. FYI: Alex (our driver) doesn't wear his glasses during competition.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Talk to the people at the event and explain your story with that you are not trying to be cool, but you need to wear the sun glasses. If the event is light(lighter than WPI) I think you should be fine.

Good luck!

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

[*]Wear my sunglasses and safety glasses, the darkness...

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

I'd say it depends on how bad your eyesight is uncorrected. Mine is around 20/40 in 1 eye and 20/60 in the other. It's a real pain to wear safety glasses that fit over my regular glasses so I usually remove them when and just wear the safety glasses when I'm in the pit. I can still see well enough to read signs but I certainly wouldn't operate any machinery without them.

I think that the dark sunglasses are more hazardous to wear because while everything may be sharp it may be too dark to safely work on a robot.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

My vision is 20 / 300 in one eye and 20 / 400 in another, so it's not very cut and dry. In order to clearly read the text on my laptop right now I have to wear sunglasses. I'm okay with shapes from most distances, but not textures.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

In that case, I'd say that the sunglasses are the best option. I'm sure the pit officials will understand your predicament. Best of luck.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Sunglasses. If the safety folks have a problem with that, ask them if it's safer to be handling machinery you can barely see due to not being able to see it, or that you can see, though it's darker than normal.

If they don't like that explanation, then you're going to be spending an awful lot of time in the stands...

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Reminds me of our driver for 2-3 years when he suddenly told us that he couldn't see the other side of the field all that time. He now has glasses.

-Tanner

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Use side Shields on your sunglasses

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Unless they aren't safety-rated. If they aren't safety-rated, you can't use them as safety glasses.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

I believe 20 / 200 is legally sight impared.

As long as the sunglasses are ANSI safety approved, I'd use them and explain to pit admin that without them you would present more of a safety hazard than with them.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Luckily I've managed to purchase a quick pair of normal glasses. Thanks for all the advice anyway!

And yeah, my main problem is that my normal vision is legally blind without correction.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Wear the sunglasses. If a Safety person ask you about them say "The future, in FIRST, is so bright I got to wear shades'.
Not much helps is it :D
Seriously, wear the sunglases with safety glasses over them if they are UL or ANSI approved.
Or walk around with a white stick with a red tip :D

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Can you make an appointment to get LASIK tomorrow morning? You'll miss some time Thursday, but would be better for the long run.

My friend, Bob Sacamano, had LASIK one morning and won a bull-riding contest that night. You should be fine.

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Haha. That's awesome. I would say wear the sunglasses, but it looks like you got the situation handled. Our driver from 2008, and now mentor, would only wear his glasses to drive the robot, not even drive his car.

Cass

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

I am missing a significant piece of my iris in one eye (from not wearing my safety goggles ironically) and in any environment that is reasonably well lit I need to wear tinted lenses. At VCU the people patrolling the pits absolutely refuse to allow any kind of tinted lenses, and even when I explained my situation they refused to let me wear my tinted safety goggles, so instead I get to wear clear (or amber) safety goggles and squint or close my bad eye. This is what they consider to be safer. After all, who really needs depth perception when working on a robot. :p

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

Indeed. I see so MANY people at regionals with these thin plastic side shields that look like overhead transparency film and 'normal' glasses, and I want to scream at them. Me, I spent $300 on a pair of real prescription safety glasses - I'd rather be a poor man with good eyes than a blind poser.
Hey, I'll do it for free. (Now lemme see, where's that laser pointer I had???) ::safety::

Re: Safety question regarding vision
 

This is one of those times I'd say "okay", wait for them to walk away, and put them right back on, really.