Re strings breaking:in my experience they fly away from the musician's face when breaking while playing.Tuning up new strings I  always shut my eyes tight in that last little bit to get them up to pitch.

I've been whipped by a string before-- it smarts.  

I re-tune a lot and would, once in a great while, break a string.  What I noticed, finally, is my string breaks occurred when I was tuning a string down.  What was happening:  the string would stick at the nut, so, when tuning down, the string was "pushing" against where the string was stuck in the nut, causing the break.  Now, when I re-tune, I put downward pressure on the strings between the tuning pegs and the nut-- -- no breaks.  

I've never had one break while playing. Wear safety glasses as a precaution.

Hey folks. I use pretty heavy gauge strings on my dulcimers and don't change them very often. So far, I haven't had a string break while playing, but I've always been kind of paranoid, since my face is directly above the strings. My fear is that the string will snap, whip up, and hit me in the eye faster than I can blink. I'm just hoping for some anecdotes about strings breaking while playing: if anyone has ever been hurt by one and where the strings tend to go when they do break.
Thanks,
Nate