Everything You Should Know About Common Car Crash Injuries

by Jay Mascolo, Esq.

Most Common Car Accident Injuries

When a car accident occurs, both minor and severe injuries could develop. In 2020, nearly 43,000 accidents in New Jersey resulted in at least one person being injured. Car crash injuries typically involve a combination of penetrating ones and impact injuries, which are detailed in the following.

Broken Ribs or Broken Bones

Ribs are known to be fragile and can break even if impact was relatively light. If you’re pushed sideways, backwards, or forwards in the course of a car accident, one or more ribs can break. Keep in mind that small breaks may not be immediately noticeable. However, most broken ribs involve symptoms like swelling in the affected area and sharp pains when you breathe in. While broken ribs can heal even if you don’t receive treatment, the healing time tends to be around 3-6 weeks.

Along with broken ribs, it’s also common for people to experience broken hips, legs, and arms when involved in a car accident. Even minor accidents can place a considerable amount of force on various areas of your body, which may be more than certain bones can effectively withstand. If you find yourself in this situation, you may experience a break, which will likely be painful until it’s mended. This injury takes place in nearly every type of collision, which includes side-impact crashes and rear-end crashes.

Whiplash

Whiplash will usually occur because of a rapid and forceful movement of the neck. It’s common for the neck to rapidly move backwards and forwards immediately after the impact in an accident. This sudden movement most often occurs as a result of rear-end accidents. While whiplash is similar to a neck strain or sprain, it has somewhat different symptoms and may be more serious depending on the severity of the accident you were involved in.

The majority of people who experience whiplash should be able to heal in three to four weeks with the use of medication and ample amounts of exercise. Keep in mind, however, that chronic neck pain and similar complications might arise because of this injury. One aspect of whiplash that differentiates it from other injuries is that it doesn’t necessarily develop right after a car accident. If you’re taken to the hospital following the crash, you might not be diagnosed with whiplash. Symptoms of this injury tend to develop several days after it first occurs. The more common symptoms include:

• Neck pain
• Poor range of motion
• Tingling in arms
• Fatigue
• Pain around shoulders
• Headaches
• Dizziness

Symptoms may even extend away from the neck and can include everything from blurred vision and tinnitus to memory problems and irritability.

Cuts and Scrapes

Even in less severe accidents, cuts and scrapes are common. Whether the impact from another vehicle causes the cuts or loose projectiles scrape your skin during the accident, there could be several cuts on different areas on your body. Along with being painful, it’s possible for larger cuts to become infected if they aren’t treated quickly. Medical treatment can keep more serious complications at bay.

Serious Head Injuries

Some of the most serious injuries that occur in car accidents include those to the head or brain, many of which lead to severe and long-lasting complications. If they aren’t properly treated, the long-term issues you experience can involve everything from persistent headaches and sleeping difficulties to a worsening of brain functions.

While it can be challenging to identify if you’re suffering from a brain injury, a doctor should be able to diagnose it. Once the it has been, a more focused treatment plan can be created to make sure that complications are kept at bay.

Herniated Disc

Herniated discs tend to occur for the same reason that broken bones do. If your back is impacted in any way during the accident, at least one of the vertebrae within your spine could shift to a different position or rupture completed. The treatment you obtain depends on what the herniated disc looks like. If it moves out of place, it might need to be shifted to its proper location to mitigate the pain and discomfort you’re experiencing.

Internal Bleeding

During a major accident, it’s possible for internal bleeding to occur, which can be dangerous if not tended to immediately. It’s because of the potential for this type of injury that medical attention is oftentimes recommended even if the accident was minor. An injury that brings about internal bleeding could be life-threatening.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

While many of the injuries that result from car crashes are physical ones, you might also suffer from various emotional and mental ones, the most severe of which involves post-traumatic stress disorder. This could result in you experiencing a considerable amount of stress even when going about your everyday routine. Mental health treatment may be necessary to reduce the effects of this disorder.

Along with post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s also possible to suffer from several additional types of psychological injuries because of your accident. These may occur in the form of flashbacks to the accident when you’re sleeping. Just like post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health treatment can be obtained to reduce mental distress and eventually lessen the severity of these psychological injuries.

What You Can Do to Keep Serious Injuries at Bay

Even though it’s not exactly possible to control how drivers act while on the road, there are things that can be done to avoid car accident injuries or to mitigate the consequences of them. The most important thing is to wear a seat belt at all times, which should help to reduce the severity of the immediate impact.

It’s also important to adhere to the given speed limit. Accidents that occur because of speeding drivers tend to be more serious than ones where everyone involved was driving at the posted speed limit. Make sure that your car is always in good working order. If an equipment failure occurs, a car crash is more likely.

Why Medical Treatment May Be Necessary

Because of the increase in adrenaline that occurs immediately following an accident, it can be difficult to know how harmed you actually have been. Injuries can also take some time to show up, which is why medical treatment may be needed by anyone who’s involved in a car accident. Obtaining an assessment from a medical professional means that injuries will be identified immediately. As such, more serious complications should be mitigated.

Obtaining medical treatment right after the accident also allows for injuries to be documented when they occur, which results in a more accurate care plan being created. Keep in mind that records from medical treatment following an accident are commonly used in legal proceedings involving a personal injury lawsuit or insurance claim.

When to Consider Hiring a Motor Vehicle Accident Lawyer

If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by the negligence of another party, you might want to file an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit with the assistance of a New Jersey car accident lawyer. Even if the injury is relatively minor, medical bills can still be high, which is why there’s no baseline for how injured someone needs to be before seeking compensation.

While most proceedings will begin with filing an insurance claim, you may want to file a personal injury lawsuit in the event that the insurance provider isn’t offering enough compensation or if the claim was denied.

From whiplash to broken bones, there is a wide range of injuries that you might experience after being in a car accident. If another driver was at fault for the accident, legal options may be available. Contact the New Jersey motor vehicle accident lawyers at RAM Law today at (732) 394-1549 to discuss your options.