What Are Some Low-Impact Car Accident Injuries?
We commonly think of low-speed car accidents as minor fender-benders with property damage to a vehicle as the only consequence. Unfortunately, many motorists discover that even low-impact car accidents in Oklahoma City or elsewhere can cause significant harm, including painful injuries that negatively impact quality of life. Even minor injuries may quickly cause financial hardship with a single emergency room bill and a few days of missed pay. More serious injuries can have lasting or life-long adverse impacts on the victim and their family.
What Is a Low-Impact Car Accident?
Although different states may have varying definitions for what constitutes a low-impact car accident, the term is most commonly used to describe accidents that occur at 35 miles per hour or less. These car accidents usually happen on roadways with reduced speed limits, in parking lots, at intersections, and while making turns. The most common type of low-impact car accident is a rear-end collision at intersections, but low-impact accidents also occur with other types of collisions, such as T-bone accidents, head-on collisions, and sideswipes.
Understanding Crash Force in a Low-Impact Car Accident
During a collision, a motorist’s body continues moving forward at the speed the vehicle was traveling before the collision. Then, the seatbelt abruptly halts the forward motion and snaps the motorist back against the seat cushion, causing significant trauma. According to crash force calculations, a 120-pound person becomes a 3,000-pound force propelled forward in an accident at only 25 miles per hour. While it may seem that a collision at 25 miles per hour wouldn’t cause injury, important body structures such as the spine often suffer trauma.
In addition to crash force injuries, a motorist may experience injuries from a forceful airbag deployment. Even a minor collision can cause the bag to powerfully inflate and contact the motorist’s face and upper body.
What Types of Injuries Occur In Low-Impact Car Accidents?
The most common low-impact car accident injuries are those sustained to the body’s support system—the skeletal structure, including the spine. Injuries also occur to the upper body and head due to airbag deployment. Common injuries in low-impact car accidents include:
- Whiplash: this is a painful neck injury that occurs when a collision causes a whip-like, rapid back-and-forth motion of the head. The weight of the head overextends the neck and damages important muscles and ligaments causing serious pain, limited mobility, and consequences to mood, memory, and concentration.
- Back injuries, including lower lumbar injuries and herniated discs
- Head injuries, including concussions
- Knee injuries
- Wrist injuries: these commonly occur due to a driver bracing for impact against the steering wheel
- Facial trauma
- Chest injuries
- Eye trauma
- Bruises and abrasions
Unfortunately, victims of low-impact car accidents may not immediately seek medical treatment after a low-impact car accident due to delayed symptoms which are commonly associated with whiplash and other injuries that occur in low-speed collisions. This not only causes a worsened medical condition, but it can make it difficult to recover compensation in a car accident claim for damages like medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Why Is Liability a Problem in Low-Impact Car Accident Claims?
Insurance companies are rarely in a hurry to write out large checks for injury victims, often choosing to protect their profits at the injury victim’s expense. In a claim for damages after a low-impact accident, insurance companies routinely dispute or deny claims based on the relatively minor damage to the vehicle and a victim’s delayed medical treatment. They may dispute the medical expenses by claiming that the doctor’s recommended medical treatment isn’t necessary for the injury or that the injury could have occurred elsewhere since the accident victim didn’t immediately seek treatment.
Unfortunately, without an attorney defending an injury victim’s rights after a low-impact car accident, it can be difficult to recover compensation.
How Can a Low-Impact Car Accident Lawyer Help?
It’s frustrating to experience painful effects and medical expenses from car accident injuries and have an insurance company dispute your claim. An experienced Oklahoma City car accident attorney will defend your best interests throughout the claim process using documented evidence like the accident report, medical report, and medical expert testimony.
Call Dan Davis Law for your Oklahoma City low-impact car accident claim so we can take prompt action on your behalf.