Five Most Common Injuries After a Car Accident

It’s great that massive technological advancements allow us to drive safely and even stay safe when accidents occur. However, it’s still likely that you’ll suffer a minor injury (at the very least). Most of these injuries aren’t something to fear long-term and medical practitioners can usually take care of them easily.

In today’s article, we’ll be taking a look at the most common injuries that can occur in a car accident!

Whiplash

Whiplash is quite possibly the most common injury (although this list isn’t set in a specific order). It usually occurs when you move your neck back and forth quickly, in a jerking motion. According to County Line Chiropractic, a Miami Gardens car accident clinic “Your spine bends past its normal range of motion and may injure the vertebrae of your cervical spine.”

If you are suffering from whiplash, you’ll likely feel pain and discomfort in the neck. This discomfort will usually last for a few days and you’ll likely have trouble bending your neck or even turning around. It’s not uncommon for whiplash to cause headaches and dizziness either!

Fractures

The possibility of breaking a bone decreases significantly if a low-speed impact occurs. In order for a bone to break, the force of impact has to be significant, which means that the speed you’re driving at needs to be high.

This usually happens because the structure of the car becomes compromised and literally moves into the car. If that happens, it can come in contact with your body and break a bone. The opposite can also happen, where a driver strikes the inside of the car and breaks a bone.

The latter is more likely to happen if you don’t wear your seatbelt! Not only can you fly out the windshield (literally), but you can also get thrown onto the dashboard, possibly breaking your ribs.

Internal Bleeding

This type of injury is, just like the former, relative to the body striking something or being struck! If you have a fracture, the doctors will most likely check you for internal bleeding – especially if you hurt your ribcage. What’s scary about internal bleeding is that it often shows no symptoms until it’s too late – this is why it’s important for you to get checked up immediately if you survived a traffic accident.

Untreated internal bleeding can lead to loss of organ or organs, limbs and even death.

Brain and Spine Injuries

Even though whiplash is a spine injury, it’s often easily taken care of. Injuries like TBI and herniated discs, however, can pose long-term problems.

TBI – Traumatic Brain Injury – is an injury often found in soldiers who have been through combat and survivors of traffic accidents. This injury causes massive damage to the brain and it’s usually the result of the head suffering a blow or a sudden jolt.

TBI can cause terrible headaches, vomiting, seizures, slurred speech, loss of concentration and coordination, increased confusion and the inability to complete the simplest of tasks. This type of injury is very difficult to treat, although there are options, which is why doctors always remind that you wear your seatbelt.

Herniated discs can be simple to fix and have minimal symptoms, while they can also be incredibly dangerous – depending on the degree of damage they took. They can cause mild or excruciating back pain, numbness and tingling. It’s also possible for them to cause complete loss of motion in a limb.

This injury is actually possible with older people (with no traffic accidents), but it’s also very common with traumatic injuries. A herniated disc is not to be confused with the actual nerve – it’s just a cushion between vertebrae that line up to create the spine. What happens during a traumatic injury is that the disc gets a bit dislocated and it starts to irritate the nerve (or nerves).

Scrapes and Cuts

Scrapes and cuts, formally known as lacerations, are just as common as any other injury on this list. The human skin, while being very sturdy, is not difficult to cut. The most likely way you’re going to cut yourself in a car accident is by shards of glass.

However, it’s also possible to just hit your head against the steering wheel hard enough and cut the skin on your face!

Luckily, lacerations aren’t anything to be afraid of, as they’re possibly the lightest of all the injuries on this list. They usually just require disinfecting and a bit of dressing, while more serious cuts need stitching.