6 Common Examples of Personal Injury from Motor Vehicle Accidents

Common Injuries from Motor Vehicle Accidents

Injury cases comes in many different forms and in the legal sense, personal injuries are often the most varied…

There are literally tens of thousands of specific injuries that can occur to the human body, but those most commonly seen in a courtroom can be chunked down to six broad categories.

The following are some of the types of injury that you might see in a personal injury case here in North Carolina:

1) Thoracic (Chest) Trauma

Thoracic trauma is the second leading cause of death in patients under the age of 18 who are admitted to hospitals.

The general effects of thoracic trauma are chronic pain, difficulty breathing, and reduced endurance. The dangerous thing about thoracic trauma is that, if left unchecked, it can lead to more complicated problems involving your whole system.

The mortality rate for isolated thoracic trauma is somewhere around 5%, but rises to five times that number when combined with another injury to the torso or head.

Of those thoracic traumas that require medical treatment, it’s estimated that around 85% are caused by blunt force to the chest.

“Blunt [force] chest trauma is usually caused by a motor vehicle accident, falling from a height, blunt instrument injury and physical assault.” .

 

2) Cranial (Head & Brain) Injuries

The most frequent of cranial head injuries is what is called a closed head injury. These injuries are very common, particularly among athletes and include any head injury that does not penetrate the skull.

Left undiagnosed or untreated, a concussion or traumatic brain injury can easily be worsened by the activities a person performs simply because they are unaware of the severity of their injury.

3) Vertebral (Spinal Cord) Injuries

Vertebral injuries are most often associated with thoracic trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and other cranial injuries. A spinal cord injury is precisely what it sounds like: damage to the spinal cord that causes reduction in mobility or function.

This is different from a back injury; the spinal cord may stay intact, but the nerve damage caused by the injury could be severe.

The most common effect of these types of injury is that they cause the nervous system to function improperly, causing numbness or chronic pain or, in the most extreme cases, paralysis of the lower and/or upper extremities.

 

4) Burn Injuries

Burns are categorized by their severity, which is determined by looking at what layers of the skin are damaged. First degree burns (now called “superficial”) are burns that affect only the top layer of skin, the epidermis.

When the second layer of skin, the dermis, is damaged by the burn it’s called, fittingly, a dermal injury (formerly dubbed “second degree burn”).

Third degree burns (now more commonly referred to as a “full thickness injury”), like those suffered by the victim in the infamous “McDonalds Hot Coffee” lawsuit, cause damage to the fatty subcutaneous layer.

Damage below that, to the muscle, is called “full thickness burns” or “fourth degree burns.”  Full thickness injuries and burns may require hospitalization, specialized burn treatment and often skin grafts.

5) Musculature (Muscle) Injuries

These injuries involve damage to the muscles. In many personal injury cases relating to car crashes, the injured person has suffered injury to the muscles of the back, chest, and extremities, often resulting in Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration Trauma, more universally termed “whiplash.”

Musculature injuries, including whiplash, are less immediately severe than other types of injury. The danger, in instances of musculature injuries, particularly those involving the back and neck, is chronic pain and stiffness.

In many cases, a person who is in shock from a car wreck doesn’t realize the occurrence or severity of the damage to their muscles and, neglecting to get a medical exam, ends up paying for it weeks, and even years, down the road.

6) Skeletal (Bone) Injuries

These injuries occur due to various causes, and come in different forms. A fracture is an injury that occurs from breakage, which can be either complete or partial depending on the force of the trauma.

Fractures are the most common skeletal injury. A sprain is similar, but denotes damage to the ligament or tissue surrounding a bone, usually a joint.

More long term ailments can occur as a result of traumatic skeletal injuries as well. Bursitis, a condition where movement causes pain in the joint, or osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone marrow are two of the more widely-seen of those long term conditions.

 

The Case for Hiring Experienced Asheville Injury Lawyers

Pre-existing conditions often cause people who have been involved in a car crash, who have been injured on the job, or who have received very poor treatment at a medical facility to suffer greater injuries.

At Fisher Stark, we have seen too many people suffer at the hands of a insurance company’s refusal to treat them fairly. People who feel that they have been victimized – again and who think that they are alone in their fight for justice.

Here at Fisher Stark, our injury lawyers know that no one asks to be injured, and we know what it takes time to get your life back on track when you or a loved one has suffered serious physical damage. We specialize in all types of personal injury law and have handled many injury cases to a successful outcome for our clients.

We serve all areas of Western North Carolina including Asheville, Buncombe County, Clyde, Canton or Waynesville.

If you or someone you know has been seriously hurt or injured, call us at (828) 505-4300 to see how we can help you.