You’ve probably seen the stereotypical images of someone going into court to sue over a car accident with a neck brace on. This stereotype is actually based in truth. There are characteristic injuries that car accidents tend to cause. Some of them are painful and others debilitating. Rear end car crash injuries can be surprisingly severe. Here are some common ones.
Concussion and TBI
Concussions and traumatic brain injuries are common features of rear end collisions. They are usually obtained when the driver or passenger ends up banging their head off of the dashboard during the collision. They are more common in older vehicles that haven’t airbags in the front. These injuries can be life changing. A bad concussion can keep you away from work for a very long time and a TBI can seriously impact your cognitive and emotional health.
Whiplash
This injury is just what it sounds like. The victim’s head is snapped forward and back, or vice versa, quickly enough to cause injury to the spine, muscles and tendons in the neck. It is exceedingly painful and requires the almost clichéd brace that you see on a lot of car accident victims. A lot of those victims are in a lot of pain and may not recover full use of their necks.
Broken Bones
These can occur for many reasons. Someone may be tossed around in the cab of the vehicle or something in the vehicle may become airborne on impact and cause a fractured bone, or even a fractured skull. These injuries are almost always serious enough to keep the victim laid up for a while and, because of that, lost wages are sometimes added to rear-end accident claims.
Getting Help
Car accident attorneys handle rear-end crashes all the time. They’re so common that it’s unavoidable that any vehicle accident attorney has a lot of them. Even though they’re common, they are very dangerous. If you’ve suffered no personal injury, consider yourself very lucky. Even if you’ve only suffered property damage, however, it’s a good idea to contact an attorney about the matter.
There are limitations on how long you have to file a lawsuit. Once you do file, it may take a long time before the claim goes to court. Your attorney will fill you in on all of this and let you know how your claim is likely to turn out, though no one can predict this for sure.
