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I have been HIT DIRECTLY in the eye with a laser beam, a COUPLE of times. true, they were the small, He-Ne laser tubes, less than 10mw. or so of power. BUT, it DID hurt! A LOT. These two events both happened back in 1987, both were caused by another college student, messing around with my laser, and then his own. the laser powerful one, mine(from a cash-register scanner,) hurt , for a few seconds. it was like an INTENSE sun flash,causing a few seconds of spots in the eyes, and inability to see, but ALSO felt like someone poking me in the eye, AT THE SAME TIME. The more powerful one, (the other students laser), caused me to see spots for MINUITES, and felt like someone PUNCHING me in the eye. So, I DO know what it would feel like. If I were driving, or something similar, and got shot in the eye with a laser, it would probably blind me, for a short time, and cause a wreck.

It IS true, that lasers do lose power over distances, and through atmosphere. SO, to give the same effictiveness of that small Helium-neon laser, from about 5 feet, in the eye, a laser would have to be quite powerful, form miles away, to blind someone. BUT, a pulsed laser could do so, in a small enough package, to be airborne.

A YAG laser is invisible.

So what, it still propagates extremely well, and easily reaches the retina.

YAG eye injuries are probably the most common type of laser eye injuries given how common YAG laser are.