Whether or not a person suffers an injury in an auto accident depends upon many factors. Find out what the most common auto accident injuries are. Of course, the severity of the accident plays a role in whether an occupant is injured in a car crash, but even a small fender-bender is capable of wreaking major havoc on a person’s health and well-being.
What’s going on inside and outside of a vehicle at the time it becomes involved in a collision absolutely factors into the types of injuries that can affect the driver and passengers:
- Were you wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash?
- Was your car hit from the rear, front, or side?
- Did the collision occur at a low or high speed?
- Did the airbags deploy?
- Were you facing straight ahead in your seat, or were you turned in a different direction, or leaning down or reclined?
The answers to these questions can be the difference between a scratch and a broken bone, life and death.
Common Auto Accident Injuries
Auto accidents are a nightmare for all involved, and when injuries are the result of a crash, the pain and struggle that follow are a constant reminder of how distracted driving or a negligent driver impacted your life with one poor choice. Here are some of the most common injuries sustained in an auto accident:
Brain and Head Injuries
A head slamming into the steering wheel, the dashboard, the window glass, the car door – all of these contact injuries can lead to a head injury, be it a mild concussion or a traumatic brain injury. Even if there is no physical trauma to the head – bruises, cuts, or open wounds – a whiplash motion can jostle your brain around inside of your skull, leading to a TBI.
Brain injuries do not automatically present themselves at the scene of a crash. It may take a little time for the symptoms to fully appear, at which time an accident victim may have waived their right to medical care on the scene. Never reject medical attention after an accident – you may look “just fine,” when you are anything but.
Neck Injuries
Neck injuries are often associated with car accidents, and they can take the form of mild whiplash to serious disc displacement or muscle strain. Soft tissue – or connective tissue – injuries occur because of the sudden – and often unexpected – movements to the neck in a collision.
Face Injuries
Your face can be injured by almost anything in a car accident, from the steering wheel to the airbag, broken glass to loose items flying through the car. The result can be minor scrapes and cuts or major lacerations and fractures, including your jaw and teeth.
Chest Injuries
Chest injuries can take the form of bruises, contusions, or, in more serious car accidents, broken ribs or internal injuries. This injury is common for drivers because of how they are positioned behind the steering wheel, and a driver will often collide with the wheel upon impact. Even a passenger, however, can experience severe bruising as a result of the brute force that throws them forward and with which their seat belt restrains them.
Back Injuries
Auto accidents can lead to back sprains, fractures, disc problems, spine injuries, and more. Back injuries may not present themselves immediately after an accident, but this type of injury can be long-lasting and extremely painful, requiring months and even years of therapy and treatment to correct or at least manage. For many car accident victims, a back injury and constant back pain is life-altering.
Limb Injuries
Knees, legs, and arms are very vulnerable areas of the body, especially for people who see their collision coming and tense up the split-second before the crash occurs. Injuries to your limbs and joints can range from cuts and bruises to broken bones, tearing, and dislocation. Your ankles and toes are also susceptible to injury
Emotional or Psychological Injuries
Physical injuries are not the only outcome of an auto accident. It is not uncommon for car accident victims to suffer short-term or long-term emotional distress, even post-traumatic stress disorder after an auto accident.
Though the above-named conditions are some of the most common auto accident injuries that are the result of an auto accident, this list is hardly exhaustive. Spinal cord injury is one of the most serious injuries that can be suffered in a car accident. Bones can be broken. Internal organs can be punctured when ribs break or the body receives a heavy blow. The Michigan State Police keep statistics on Auto Accident Injuries in Michigan.
Christensen Law – The Michigan Auto Accident Attorney Who Gets Results
Car accidents can change your life in an instant. The job that you do, the hobbies you enjoy, the freedom you’ve always been privileged to have can be taken from you in one crash because of serious, life-threatening, debilitating injuries that have lengthy, difficult recoveries, if you are able to recover completely at all.
If you or someone you love has suffered a serious auto accident in Michigan, you must visit an experienced personal injury attorney who gets the kind of case results that offer compensation for your serious injuries. Christensen Law handles all kinds of accidents involving a motor vehicle, including:
Hire veteran Michigan auto accident attorney David Christensen to handle your case.
