In every auto accident, damages are likely to be sustained. The most obvious damage is the destruction that your car sustains after a collision.
Car accidents aren’t limited to property damage though. They can cause injuries to your body, some of which are visible immediately while others take days or weeks for symptoms to show.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that car accidents were the leading cause of death in the United States in 2021. One in every five people is at risk of car accident injuries.
As a motorist, its important to understand the common car accident injuries you could suffer if you’re involved in a car accident. Read on to learn more.
What Are the Most Common Car Accident Injuries?
In the United States, individuals spend up to 1 million days in the hospital for common car crash injuries annually.
This results in approximately $18 billion in medical bills and $33 billion in lost wages! So, what are the most common injuries from car accidents?
Head Injuries
Head injuries are one of the most common injuries sustained during a collision. And they happen to take different forms, ranging from minor bruises to severe head injuries. The severity depends on the impact of the accident.
Wondering how head injuries occur? Well, when a car abruptly comes to a stop, a driver’s or passenger’s head moves in a sudden and unusual way. These movements can cause your head to hit the side window or steering wheel and sustain cuts or bruises.
The majority of auto accident-related head injuries result in concussions.
Whiplash
Whiplash is the other name for soft tissue injuries on the neck and back. These injuries primarily result from sudden movements during a car crash, particularly rear-end collisions.
Unlike other injuries, pain related to whiplash doesn’t manifest immediately.
You are likely to have sustained whiplash if you experience pain or discomfort in your neck and back after a car accident.
The strains are painful and take some time to recover, but in most cases, whiplash doesn’t result in life-long injuries.
Broken Bones
A collision may have a huge impact, making your body to hit other parts of the vehicle. In turn, this puts your skeleton under stress that it can’t withstand, hence breaking your bones.
Bone fractures range from simple to compound. Simple fractures break the bone without creating open wounds. They only require a cast to heal.
Compound fractures usually penetrate the skin. For these, you’ll need to undergo surgery to correct the damage and help the bone heal.
Fortunately, though broken bones are usually so common, they are rarely permanent or life-threatening.
Dislocated Joints
Sometimes the whole force of the collision and the impact exerted on your body may lead to joint dislocation.
Some common dislocation points are the elbow and shoulder because they bear the mark of the jolting of your upper body.
It’s also not uncommon for joints on the foot, ankle, wrist, knee, and fingers to dislocate during an auto accident.
Typically, seat belts are designed to protect you from sustaining injuries in the event of an accident.
But the seatbelt can easily slide out of position if not fastened well on your body, causing your joints to slip out of place.
A joint dislocation is noticed immediately because of the intense pain.
Spine Injury
Just like whiplash, the force exerted on your body during a car crash can cause severe damage to your body.
It may result in herniation of the discs in your spine, which are painful and can affect your mobility.
A herniated disc injury can cause numbness or tingling sensation on your back, arms, and legs. And while these injuries are often not permanent, they take time to heal. Physical therapy is recommended to help you return to health.
Statistics – What Are the Most Common Accident Injuries?
Approximately 3 million people in the U.S. Sustain injuries from car accidents yearly. Out of these, 2 million drivers sustain permanent injuries. The leading car crash injuries are:
Whiplash
Statistically, whiplash is the most common accident injury. Every year, two million Americans experience whiplash after involvement in a car accident. Whiplash results mostly from front and rear-impact car accidents.
Head Injuries
When it comes to head injuries, traumatic head injury (TBI) is the most severe. Car accidents are the leading cause of TBIs, following closely behind falls.
CDC data shows that car accidents are responsible for almost 300,000 of the 1.7 million TBIs reported annually. And out of all the people who sustain TBI annually, up to 90,000 sustain permanent brain damage.
An estimated 5.3 million people are struggling with long-term disability resulting from car accident head injuries. Unfortunately, long-term implications of TBI may cause emotional, cognitive, motor, and sensory impairments.
Joint Dislocations
Joint dislocations are also widespread. The CDC reports that annually, 250,000 people are hospitalized for dislocated or fractured hip or thigh. Twenty-five percent of these people were aged between 18 and 44.
Although hip injuries are thought to affect the elderly mostly, dislocated joints commonly result in collisions.
Fractures
Pelvic bone fractures are the most common of all bones that sustain fractures during car accidents. In fact, 15 percent of fatal car accident victims sustain pelvic fractures.
The other 85 percent of them die within five hours of the accident due to the injuries. But Fibula and femur fractures are also surprisingly common.
Spinal Cord Injury
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistics Center, the U.S records 17,810 cases of non-fatal spinal cord injury (SCI) each year.
Unsurprisingly, car accidents are the leading cause of these injuries. Car accidents account for 39 percent of these cases.
The Law – What Are the Legal Ramifications of The Accident?
Almost every driver will be involved in an auto accident at some point. And when they do, they suffer physical, financial, and legal consequences.
Legal ramifications of the accident can either be lawsuits or criminal charges. The process involves:
Determining Fault of a Car Crash
Do you live in a ‘fault’ state? Alabama, Illinois, and North Carolina, are some of the fault states.
If you do, you must provide fault and liability for any injuries or damages that resulted from the car accident when filing for claims. You must meet two criteria to prove which driver was at fault:
A legal duty was owed
When behind the wheel, you are responsible for every other person using the road, including passengers, drivers, and cyclists. That means you must drive your car carefully at all times.
The duty was breached
The injured party has to prove that the at-fault driver failed to execute his duty of due care. The law expects every road user to behave reasonably.
If duty is breached, the driver will bear responsibility for the injury and damage resulting from the car accident.
Medical Expenses
If anyone sustain injuries in an auto accident, the at-fault driver will be responsible for the medical care. You have two options when paying for critical care. You can either:
- Present your medical bills to your health insurance if you have one. Depending on your policy, the company might pay and later seek reimbursement from the at-fault driver’s insurance company.
- Cover medical care with your auto insurance. Some states require liability insurance to cover the medical bills of all passengers.
Getting Sued
Most car accidents don’t end up in lawsuits. Your insurance company or the other driver pays for the damages per the state laws.
When the matter is settled through an insurance claim, no one will need to go to court or be sued. But in some cases, things might not get harsh. The insurance company may sometimes fail to pay what the injured party is quoting.
When this happens, the injured party can file a lawsuit in court. Here, your insurance company will defend you against the claim made by the defendant.
But if the injuries and damages exceed your insurance coverage amounts, you will be personally liable for the difference.
Criminal Offenses
The fact that the car accident was your fault doesn’t necessarily mean you have committed a crime. Actually, most collisions hardly lead to criminal charges.
There will only be criminal ramifications if the motorist who caused the auto accident was driving recklessly or under influence.
Reckless driving and driver-under-influence (DUI) are considered crimes regardless of whether you get involved in an accident or not. And when property damage or injuries occur because of these crimes, the penalties will be more severe.
For example, a DUI attracts a $300 fine with no jail time in Pennsylvania. But if a first offender causes property damage or injuries to another, you will be looking at a $500 to $5000 in fines and up to 48 hours in jail. Remember, the law here varies from state to state.
Medical Help – What to Do If You Suffer An Injury
If you sustain severe injuries in a car accident, emergency services might show up at the scene and take you to the nearest hospital, where you’ll receive necessary medical care.
But what about minor accidents where you don’t feel any pain or noticeable discomfort?
Individuals involved in auto accidents often don’t even realize they’ve been injured. That’s because your body responds to pain stimuli and stress by producing endorphins to mask the pain.
So, here is what to do if you’re involved in an accident.
Visit a Doctor Immediately
Failure to seek medical help immediately after an accident or shrug off minor symptoms like headaches or muscle aches can gravely affect your health.
You may not feel pain after a collision, but that’s because accident injuries like concussions or spinal injuries may not display symptoms until days or weeks later.
Remember, some accident injuries such as herniated spinal disc or internal bleeding are not visible. They can only be seen with an X-ray or C.T. scan.
So, visit a physician immediately after a car accident to prevent permanent problems.
Follow Through with Your Treatment
After a car accident, continue with the treatment or therapy that your doctor recommended until they ask you to stop.
Following through with your treatment is essential for two reasons- one, the doctor is better positioned to know the severity of your injury and prescribe the best treatment for you. This will also help you recover quickly.
Secondly, your doctor’s records of visits are the best way to document and verify the extent of your injuries and the duration of treatment.
You’ll need this proof when making a car accident claim. Medical treatment and bills are part of damages in a personal injury case.
Review Your Doctor’s Treatment Records
It’s always good to keep up with your medical records when undergoing treatment for car accident-related injuries.
Carefully review them and ask the doctor to correct any errors.
When reviewing the records, pay close attention to the description of your auto accident. Did the doctor misunderstand the facts? Does the report say you were driving at 35 mph while doing 25 mph?
Such discrepancies should be identified and corrected because the insurance adjuster and defense lawyer of the other party will use them to discredit your case.
Lastly, make sure the doctor gets your medical history right. Defense lawyers will always look at your medical history to find something (like a pre-existing condition) that they can claim is the actual cause of your current symptoms.
So, don’t gamble with your medical history, especially with pre-existing conditions.
Insurance – What Can They Do to Help You?
When you are involved in a car accident, your car insurance affords you the compensation you deserve for damages and injuries. You have two options here: file a claim against the other party or use your insurance to fix the problem.
File a Claim from the Other Party’s Insurance Company
Sometimes you get involved in a car accident because someone else crashed into you. In this scenario, you claim their liability insurance. The other name for this is a third-party claim.
The other driver’s insurance will process the claim, and you’ll be compensated for your injuries and damages. But this isn’t a quick process since the insurer will first investigate the accident to establish who was at fault.
Use Your Own Insurance
You have car insurance yourself, and it is in situations such as this that it’s supposed to help. Even if someone else crashed into you, you could turn to your auto insurance for help. Here’s how it happens:
No-fault States
If you live in a no-fault state, you should make injury claims on your insurance first. That’s the reason no-fault states request personal injury protection (PIP) insurance.
Suing the other driver when in a no-fault state, you must meet specific criteria, such as death or severe injury.
If you’re in a fault state, PIP and MedPay are usually available. You can use them for injury claims for you and your passengers.
Dealing with insurance claims is not easy. You need an experienced car accident attorney to represent and guide you through the claims process.
An underinsured driver
What do you do if the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance to cover your injuries? You can sue them for the remainder, but it won’t be worth it if they have no assets.
In such a case, you may turn to your underinsured motorist coverage if you have it. It can cover your medical bills in cases where the other driver’s insurance is insufficient.
Final Thoughts
Car accidents cause considerable damage to people every other day. Statistics show that motorists are at risk of car crash injuries.
If involved in a car accident, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed and unsure what to do next. Dealing with a car accident’s aftermath can also be incredibly stressful. You may have questions regarding your legal rights or how to file your injury claim.
A dedicated team of car accident attorneys at Legal Giant can help determine if you are entitled to compensation and advise you on the next steps.
Contact us for a consultation with an injury attorney today.
