Road accidents occur every day. Fortunately, most of these accidents result in only cosmetic car damage or minor injuries. In some cases, any type of car accident can result in major damage to your vehicle as well as life-threatening injuries.
The most common type of injury caused by road accidents is an impact injury, which happens when the person’s body hits something inside the car. As well as puncture injuries, there are usually cuts and wounds caused by sharp objects or shattered glass.
Motor vehicle collisions can cause many different types of injuries, but you are much more likely to suffer one of these most common injuries.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Injuries sustained in car accidents are not always physical. In the event of a car accident, you may suffer mental and emotional injuries. Post-traumatic stress disorder may cause you to worry and even become unable to do routine tasks. Even driving again may become an issue.
PTSD symptoms are reported in almost 40% of all reported road accidents in the US alone each year. PTSD symptoms are a natural bodily response to trauma that usually go away on their own over time. But sometimes, they can become severe and need medical treatment.
For some, if left untreated, PTSD may not go away. In fact, these feelings can worsen over time.
Cuts and Scrapes
A scrape or cut is a wound in which the layers of skin are scraped or torn, whereas a cut is a gash in the skin made by something sharp.
During a crash, these injuries are usually caused by airborne objects inside the vehicle Broken glass, car parts, and even airbags can also cause skin injuries. Both scrapes and cuts can cause pain as well as infection.
It’s easy to dismiss these injuries as being minor, but they can cause quite a bit of pain and take longer to heal than you think. If you’re coping with symptoms of road rash, an El Paso road rash injury lawyer may be able to help you handle it legally. If you have a cut that is more than a quarter-inch deep, promptly seek medical attention.
Internal Bleeding
Besides cuts and broken bones, internal bleeding is not uncommon in road accidents. If it doesn’t get diagnosed or treated quickly after a car crash, it can be very dangerous.
Our organs are fragile, and the impact of a car accident can damage them and cause them to bleed. It is common for high-speed collisions to cause serious internal bleeding. To prevent them from posing a life-threatening threat, it is essential to treat them promptly.
Anything other than a minor accident should be treated immediately by a medical professional. In the event that there is any possibility that you may have suffered internal bleeding, you should seek critical care immediately to avoid serious complications.
Whiplash
Accident victims of both minor and serious accidents are most likely to suffer soft tissue injuries.
In a car accident, muscles, ligaments, and tendons can be injured, resulting in whiplash.
A car accident can cause physical trauma during sudden, fast movements or collisions. It is common for whiplash to be very painful, and healing from it can take a long time.
Head Injuries
An injury to the head can range from being relatively minor to quite severe. Drivers and passengers can experience sudden and unnatural head movements as a result of a sudden stop or change in direction in a car.
Quick and sudden movements during a road accident could leave you with muscle strains and sprains, as noted above. It is also possible to sustain a head injury. When a person’s head hits a side window or steering wheel, it can be cut or bruised.
In severe head collisions, the brain tissue and blood vessels can be bruised and torn, resulting in a closed head injury. A concussion is the most common result of a closed head injury, but more severe impacts can result in permanent brain damage. Again this needs to be cared for by a medical practitioner.
Broken Bones
When your body hits other parts of a vehicle during a road accident, your bones are put under intense stress.
There are many ways in which this can happen. You may fracture some of your ribs depending on how quickly your seatbelt stops. Or a fractured arm may occur if your arm is pinned between the door and your body.
In most cases, fractured bones don’t require any serious treatment, although if you do have a broken bone, you may need to rest and recover for a month or two. Without medical treatment, minor road accident injuries usually heal within a few days. In the event of a more serious injury, a degree of physical disability might be permanent.
