If you are an injured front vehicle driver or passenger in a rear-end collision you could make a case for damages. Many serious injuries are suffered in such accidents, some of which are not manifested for some time after the accident. Lawler and Lawler, experienced Metropolis injury lawyers with a law office in Carbondale, will expertly represent your case.
Physics of A Rear-End Collision
The immediate physical response to a rear-end collision is to violently thrust your body forward, and then snap it back.
A rear-end collision transfers kinetic energy from the moving rear car into your car as well as your body. You absorb the transferred energy and are thrust forward along with your car.
The violent thrust forward can give rise to many possible internal and external injuries. The backward lurch also causes injury.
Common injuries from a rear-end collision are to the head, neck, back, and chest. Furthermore, when motion suddenly stops your organs slam into other parts of your body. Your brain slams into your skull which is one of the main causes of concussions in sports as well as car accidents.
Whiplash
Rear-end collisions commonly cause structural (orthopedic) damage to your neck, back, and shoulders from whiplash.
Your body is not prepared to resist the force, so the violence to your bones and joints is more severe.
The orthopedic trauma causes nerve responses of pain, weakness, and numbness to your neck, arms, and shoulders.
Back Injuries
The force of a rear-end collision has multiple impacts. The first is a forward motion with a sudden stop, followed by a backward thrust, further followed by a sudden stop, which is commonly followed by another forward thrust. Each force and sudden stoppage can have serious skeletal injuries.
Your spine and back muscles can suffer painful injury. Forces can fracture vertebrae, or compress vertebral discs. That leads to pain, numbness, weakness, and perhaps paralysis.
Brain Injuries
When your car is accelerated from behind and then violently stopped, your brain keeps going with inertia and crashes into your skull. The result is a concussion.
Concussions cause unconsciousness, pain, dizziness, disorientation, and confusion. These symptoms can persist for weeks.
Bone Fractures
Ribs are commonly fractured in a rear-end collision from seatbelts or airbags. If you are not wearing a seatbelt, other bones including your skull might be fractured when you hit the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield.
Other Less-Common Injuries
Ordinarily, a rear-end collision occurs when the front driver is wearing a seatbelt, and there is no obstruction in front of his car.
However, some drivers don’t wear a seatbelt. A sudden forward thrust followed by a violent stop can by inertia send the driver through the windshield resulting in severe injury, and possibly death.
Also, a rear-end collision could start a chain reaction of a multi-car pile-up. A driver in one of those cars can suffer injury common to a rear-end collision as well as a head-on collision. Airbags will be deployed with possible facial and chest injuries.
Conclusion
Very serious injuries are caused by rear-end vehicle accidents. Some of those injuries don’t appear until sometime after the accident. Please call us at Lawler and Lawler with law offices in Carbondale, Illinois for the professional help from Metropolis injury lawyers.
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