Georgia woman creates shatter-resistant sunglass line after losing eye in car accident

ATLANTA - Hannah and James Oliver work as a team on Hannah's sunglasses line, born out of the hardest experience of the Smyrna 29-year-old's life.

"When I'm packaging, it's just a weird feeling, because, it's, like, when I thought my world was ending, I really, truly believe it was just beginning," Oliver says. "Before I lost my eye, I had no clue that this would even happen."

In a photo, taken a week before her accident, Oliver is wearing her favorite designer sunglasses tipped back on her head.

Hannah and James Oliver a few months before Hannah was partially blinded in a car accident, when the airbag knocked shards of glass from her sunglasses into one of her eyes. (Hannah Oliver)

"I had bought that same pair three times because I love them so much," she says.

But, she says she never thought about what her lenses were made of until Aug. 3, 2021, when she was driving home from her parents' house wearing those very sunglasses.

"I got on South Cobb [Drive] and was going down the road, and a guy pulled out in front of me, slammed on the brakes," Oliver says.  "I couldn't react fast enough. As soon as I hit him, the airbag came out, and it just hit my sunglasses right at the right angle, I guess. And they shattered on impact."

"It deflated my eye on impact," she says. "My retina was detached, and my optic nerve was severed, so there was no coming back."

Later that night at Grady Memorial Hospital, Oliver underwent the first of a half-dozen surgeries.

"We did two surgeries – one surgery just to remove all the glass and shards, and the other one to piece me back together," she says. "Then, then they discharged me. And then I was like, ‘How do I live with one eye?’"

She and James were three months away from getting married.

"At first it was very difficult, like mentally, because there was this part of me, like, 'I don't know who that girl is. I don't know who's looking back at me.' I was thinking, you know, ‘Does he still find me attractive? Does he still find me beautiful?’ And I went through a lot of, like, therapy just talking about it and really grieving who I used to be."

(Photo submitted by Hannah Oliver)

A year after her accident, after an ocularist had created a prosthetic eye for Oliver, her eye surgeon brought up sunglasses.

"She's saying, like, 'Hannah, you have to wear polycarbonate lenses; you only have one eye, you have got to protect what you have,'" Oliver says. "I discovered that polycarbonate is not going to shatter. It will only crack. It will never shatter compared to, like, plastic or glass."

(Supplied)

Sharing her story on TikTok, Oliver set out to create shatter-resistant sunglasses, testing the polycarbonate material with a sledgehammer.

"I think the number one thing I would tell anybody is just to look, to see, like, what the material is made out of," Oliver says. "We're putting these less than an inch away from our eyes. Like we shouldn't just be thinking about this for fashion."

Last August, two years after her accident, Oliver launched Blue Eye Sunglasses.

"It's helped me cope with what happened to me," she says. "It's like telling my story in a way, and that's what I wanted to do with the frames."

She has created three styles so far. Each frame is named after a part of her recovery.

"One is the 'Grady,’ and that's after Grady Memorial Hospital, which helped me at the beginning," Oliver explains. "Then, we have a pair that's ‘Emory,’ for Emory Healthcare. And, then there is the ‘Tony,’ which is actually named after my ocularist, who made my prosthetic."

Hannah Oliver packs orders of Blue Eye, her sunglasses built for impact.

Hannah Oliver says her hope is to make looking stylish safer.

"By using my voice and using my story, I can save somebody else's eye. It's very, I don't know, it warms my heart. It's very pure."

To see Hannah Oliver's line of sunglasses, visit Blue Eye Sunglasses online.