What Are the Most Common Car Accident Injuries?

A low-speed fender bender can cause injury just as much as a high-speed collision, though the severity of the injuries often differs drastically.

Here are some of the most common car accident injuries, minor and major:

Head Injuries

The Center for Disease Control notes that motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and are frequently connected to TBI-related deaths. Lacerations to the face, a broken jawbone or nose, and eye damage are other types of head injuries that may occur during a crash.

Head-on, rear-end, and side-impact collisions are the leading cause of head injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Rollover crashes can also cause head injuries, as the skull may make contact with the upturned roof of a car.

What may seem like a minor bump to the head can still cause concussion or brain injuries. TBIs in particular can result in personality changes, severe headaches, and cognitive impairments that make it difficult to perform even simple tasks.

While bodies are usually belted into a car’s seat, the human head can be injured from contact with the steering wheel, windows, headrest, or other objects that may fly through the car on impact. Immediate and ongoing medical treatment may be vital to successful recovery from head trauma.

Limb Damage

Multiple studies conducted by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have shown a large majority of injuries in front-end crashes are to the lower extremities, which include the hips, legs, knees, ankles, and feet. Older drivers and those with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) tend to experience leg trauma most frequently during car accidents. Site swelling, pain, buckling, dislocation, and ruptures are many of the symptoms of lower extremity injuries.

The upper extremities are also at risk in side-impact crashes, including shoulders, elbows, and wrists. A driver’s fingers are especially vulnerable if they’re resting on the wheel, as they can be easily pinned, crushed, or amputated during a crash. Motorcycle accidents are even more likely to cause limb damage.

Extensive surgery is often necessary to repair injuries to limbs, especially when complex joints are damaged. Such injuries not only need immediate medical care, but could require long-term physical therapy to fully heal.

Soft Tissue and Organ Injuries

Whiplash is probably the best known soft tissue injury sustained in a car crash, but soft tissue injuries can occur anywhere in the body where tissues connect your bones. Soft tissues encompass your muscles (including your heart), fat, nerves, blood vessels, tendons, and other fibrous and supportive tissues that cushion the working parts of your skeleton. Sprain, strains, contusions, tendonitis, and bursitis (inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs that cushion major joints) are all injuries that can result from a car accident.

Even more vital are your inner organs. Except for the brain, all of your major organs are located in your torso, including your liver, kidneys, stomach, reproductive organs, and lungs. Impact damage or impalement during a car or commercial truck accident can cause direct and obvious injuries. Significant damage to these organs could be fatal.

However, internal tears and bleeding aren’t always immediately apparent after an accident. They may go undetected for days before symptoms start. This is why it’s important to get professional medical care after an auto accident. Your road to recovery will go much faster if you immediately know the extent of all your injuries.

Velocity Damage

Not all injuries during car accidents are due to impact, some are due to velocity, aka speed. Like whiplash, some injuries are caused by the force associated with fast speeds and sudden stopping. Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries can result if your brain is rapidly shifted during a crash.

Similarly, while seat belts can save people from the catastrophic damage of being thrown from a vehicle, they can also cause bruising, and may play a part in organ rupture during high-speed crashes.

Just because you cannot see an injury, or were not hit with or thrown against anything during a crash, does not mean you aren’t hurt. Any automobile collision brings the danger of speeds far higher than humans can propel themselves independently. Higher speeds mean greater forces at play that may cause unseen injuries.

Back, Neck, and Spinal Cord Injuries

Neck and back injuries sustained in car crashes can be especially painful and debilitating.

The spine is divided into three regions: the cervical spine or neck, the thoracic or upper back, and the lumbar or lower back. While most injuries to the cervical spine are often lumped in the soft tissue/whiplash category, severe injuries to the cervical spine may result in death. Thoracic and lumbar spine injuries include herniated discs, complete disc slippage, muscle sprains, and tears that can cause pain and affect mobility. A back injury can render someone bedridden and unable to return to work for several weeks.

However, perhaps the most devastating consequence of a car accident is permanent paralysis or loss of sensation. Because the spine and central nervous system are intrinsically connected, nerve damage is common in spinal cord injury.

Complete or partial paraplegia, resulting in loss of mobility and requiring the use of a wheelchair or other assisted devices, is common in spinal cord injuries from car crashes. The total lifetime care costs of spinal cord damage can be well beyond what the average family can manage.

These injuries are some of the most frequent that occur to drivers and passengers involved in car accidents.

However, pedestrians can suffer profound injuries due to automobile impacts as well. Contact Pierce Skrabanek for help with any manner of vehicular accident, including motorcycle, truck, and pedestrian cases.