Unfortunately, motor vehicle accidents are a common occurrence on major and minor roadways throughout Montana and other states across the nation. Whether it is a minor fender bender during rush hour traffic, a head-on collision involving a drunk driver or an intersection crash caused by a distracted motorist, automobile collisions can come in different sizes and severities. Moreover, the car accident injuries suffered by accident victims can vary from accident to accident.

While the degree of severity changes from accident to accident, victims are likely to suffer injuries in a collision because car accidents are the leading cause of injuries in the U.S. In fact, based on statistics from 2012, over 5.6 million car accidents were reported that year and, of those reported accidents, 30,000 were fatal while 1.6 million accidents involved injuries.

Although an automobile collision could result in fatal injuries or no injuries at all, it is likely that victims will suffer from some of the more common car accident injuries. While all areas of the body could be affected in a crash, head and back injuries are the most serious because it could impact a victim’s mobility, memory, hearing, vision and cognitive abilities. A traumatic brain injury could seriously debilitate a victim and any damage to the spinal cord could leave a victim temporarily or permanently paralyzed.

Whiplash is a well-known accident injury because collisions usually cause a victim to endure sudden jerks or movements to the head or neck. While this is likely to occur in a rear-end collision, whiplash could be suffered in any time of accident.

Blunt force trauma is also likely to occur in a car crash because victims are tossed around within a vehicle during the duration of the accident. This is likely to cause serious injuries such as trauma to the chest or broken bones. This could result in a collapsed lung, broken ribs, internal bleeding or other serious damage to internal organs. These types of injuries require immediate medical attention because if they are not timely or properly treated, these injuries could become fatal.

The aftermath of accident could result in victim enduring a large amount of pain and suffering. The recovery process for the injuries suffered could be lengthy and costly. Therefore, if a negligent party caused the collision, victims could cover medical bills and other damages through a personal injury claim.

Source: Injury.findlaw.com, “Types of Car Accident Injuries,” accessed June 13, 2016