Three common types of injuries from auto accidents
On Behalf of The Andres Lopez Law Firm , PA | April 30, 2022 | Motor Vehicle Accidents
The CDC reports that auto accidents injure around 3 million U.S. citizens annually. Auto accidents rank second as a leading cause of preventable death behind falls. A driver in Coral Springs, Florida, may experience several types of injuries after a crash.
Whiplash
Whiplash is a common injury after motor vehicle accidents, which causes the neck to jerk harshly back and forth. This rapid, sudden action impacts the soft tissue, or ligaments, forcing the neck out of alignment.
Whiplash commonly occurs in rear-end crashes and the vehicle doesn’t have to be traveling fast to damage soft tissue. A whiplash injury may cause a range of motion decrease, dizziness, neck stiffness and pain, and hand or arm numbness.
Concussions
A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury that occurs from a hard blow to the head. In an auto accident, the head may hit the ceiling of the vehicle, dashboard, or steering wheel.
Some common concussion symptoms include dizziness, headaches, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision, and balance issues. While concussions may cause a loss of consciousness for a few minutes, they can still occur without it.
Back injuries
A common back injury after an auto accident is a herniated disk, which damages the gel structures between vertebrae. This could cause radiating pain from the shoulder to the legs, numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness.
Another back area prone to injury is the lumbar spine, or lower back, causing acute pain from ligament damage. A type of spinal fracture caused by vehicle accidents is compression fractures or small bone breaks in the vertebrae.
An injured party should seek immediate treatment after a crash, regardless if they feel fine. They may seem fine, but adrenalin can cause the symptoms to lie dormant for several days. They also need proof of injury for seeking damages against an at-fault driver.