I recently walked into a pet shop window while picking up my dog’s beef cheek chew.

Not the display window, but one of the windows that are aligning the two window doors used for exit that have the push bar on them. One of the doors was broken, as it as been for quite sometime, and the other had a sign on it saying “Please use this door. Other door is broken.”

I don’t know what I was thinking. All I know is that I was walking out of the store, on a mission or just deep in my head when all of a sudden,…SMACK!!! I immediately and suddenly was stopped by a force. It took me a minute for me to realize what had just happened.

I just turned around and stared back at the two open eyed and mouth team members and muttered, “I wasn’t paying attention.” I hurried out of there so quickly with my wounded pride.

I was a little dizzy afterwards, but more so embarrassed. A small robin’s egg started to form on my forehead.

Then I thought about how lucky I was. I remember growing up in the 70s and hearing about people walking through glass windows. Windows that were in front of every store and actually made of glass that was also used for vehicles.

Because of all of the accidents involving this glass, which happened to be 187,000-190,000 every year, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stepped in and recognized all of these incidents and that something had to be done.

Some results from these accidents included massive lacerations due to regular annealed glass which breaks into large and heavy shards that are razor sharp. It would involve deep cuts to blood vessels, tendons and nerves which in turn would require extensive surgeries. In some of the worst cases major arteries would be severed which lead to a fatal amount of blood loss.

Then there is the “Invisible” Wall Illusion where people where just in a hurry. Storefront glass was often kept very clear and clean. People would frequently walk or run in these large glass panels not realizing that it wasn’t an open entryway.

I think the Invisible Wall Illusion is what happened to me. I was in a hurry. And I actually was not looking at my phone.

Injuries that also included events during theft, and accidents involving children also helped the CPSC to change regulations on window glass. Around 40% of accidents occurred with children under the age of 15 accidentally running into the glass.

Shatterproof glass was actually discovered by mistake. In 1903, a French chemist named Edouard Benedictus, accidentally dropped a flask that was coated with a liquid plastic (cellulose nitrate). The glass cracked into pieces but the plastic layer held the shape rather than shatter.

This what I learned about the glass that saved me when I gracefully walked into a shop door window!