What Are the Most Common Car Accident Injuries?

Car accidents can result in many injuries, including:

• Cuts, sprains, and bruises: Car parts, steering wheel bumps, and shrapnel from your accident can cause cuts, bruises, and severe lacerations that can not only affect your ability to work and do everyday activities but may also leave you permanently scarred. If your cuts and bruises require medical attention, our car accident lawyers can help you recover compensation for your hospital bills, medication, and more.
• Spinal cord injuries: Damage to the spinal cord can affect how your brain communicates with your body — or completely hinder it. A spinal cord injury can have a permanent, life-changing impact, causing numbness, muscle weakness, and even paralysis.
• Head and brain injuries: Head and brain injuries are incredibly common in car accidents, whether from striking the windshield or side-paneling or from the pure force of the collision. The brain is a delicate organ, and even the slightest blow or shunt can give you a concussion, skull fractures, or a severe traumatic brain injury, which can cause headaches or, in worst cases, put you in a coma or kill you.
• Neck and back injuries: Even crashes at a low speed can do a number on the neck and back. A common injury is a herniated disc, which can cause significant pain and require extensive rehabilitation.
• Internal injuries: Internal injuries such as a punctured lung or internal hemorrhage are severe. When internal damage doesn’t prove fatal, it often leads to extensive, long-term health problems.
• Dental and facial injuries: The force of a car crash can cause accident victims to sustain trauma to their face. Dental injuries can include cracked or chipped teeth, while a severe facial injury could cause disfigurement, which can have a life-changing impact.
• Whiplash: Whiplash is a common injury in rear-end car accidents. It’s caused by the forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement that often occurs in this type of accident. Because a rear-end shunt is rarely anticipated, the body can’t brace itself for impact, causing more damage. Whiplash can lead to soreness, headaches, and fatigue, with more severe symptoms including a limited range of motion, memory problems, and concussion.
• Wrist and arm injuries: Just as when we fall, it’s our natural instinct to reach forward to break it; when we see an oncoming car, we often place our arms on the steering wheel to brace for the impact. However, this often does more harm than good, and the additional tension in the body can cause broken bones and painful dislocated joints.

These are just several of the common injuries sustained in a car accident. Others include nerve damage, loss of limbs, and mental conditions such as depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In the most tragic cases, a car accident can also cause wrongful death.

If you’ve been in a car accident, your first step after seeing a doctor to receive treatment should be to contact a personal injury attorney. Our auto accident lawyers in Texas can help you retrieve copies of your medical records to support your claim and get you the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

What Are the Top Causes of Car Accidents?

The most common causes of car accidents are related to driver error, but vehicle error and environmental factors also contribute their fair share of car accidents.

Some of these causes include:

Distracted Driving

Distracted driving can constitute a range of behaviors, from eating or drinking to sending a text or talking to other passengers while driving. Many of us think we can multitask, but instead of doing both tasks simultaneously, the brain rapidly toggles between them, leading to neither being done properly. When driving a car, you might still have one eye on the road, but your reaction speed will be affected, and it can cause you to miss hazards and end up in a crash.

Speeding

The faster you drive, the less time you have to react to hazards on the road, whether a pothole, sharp corner, or another driver. Speeding can be tempting, especially if you’re in a rush or the road is quiet, but even with Texas boasting some of the highest speed limits in the country, speeding is common — and deadly.

Driving While Intoxicated

Drunk driving is preventable but incredibly prevalent — one person dies every 52 minutes in the US because of drunk driving. But driving under the influence of drugs is also common. Even over-the-counter and prescription medication can reduce reaction times and focus, with side-effects of many medicines including drowsiness.

Tire Blowouts

If a driver doesn’t check their tires before driving and it punctures, they can be held liable for any accidents that occur. When a tire bursts, the driver becomes a passenger in their vehicle, unable to control their steering. If other vehicles are on the road, the results can be disastrous.

Brake Failure

While auto defects aren’t as common compared to driver-led incidents, brake failure is among the most prevalent. Whether you’re braking for a turn or to take evasive action against a reckless driver, if your brakes fail, there’s little you can do to avoid a crash. If a brake failure caused your accident, you might be able to claim compensation against the manufacturer.

Inclement Weather

We can’t control the weather, and sometimes, driving in snowstorms, icy conditions, high winds, or heavy rain is necessary. Such weather can make it near-impossible to see and difficult to drive, but drivers should exercise care when on the road. If a person continues to drive at the limit — or, worse, over it — on a slippery road, their behavior is reckless, which means they could be liable in a car accident.
Potholes
Research shows that Americans spend an average of $3 billion each year on repairs to damage caused by potholes. But the economic cost isn’t the only one. Potholes are a major hazard. Hitting a pothole can blow a tire, causing the driver to skid into another vehicle, but even taking evasive action can cause deadly crashes. If a driver swerves to avoid a pothole, they might plow into oncoming traffic.
Obscured Signs
We rely on road signs to tell us how fast we can drive when there’s a turn, intersection, or school zone up ahead, and more. If these signs are obscured — or missing entirely — it can cause a car accident.

What Compensation Can a Texas Car Accident Lawyer Help You Get?

A car accident can leave you with injuries that require significant time off work or a lengthy, painful recovery, but you don’t have to struggle alone. A personal injury claim can allow you to receive a monetary award to cover your medical expenses and lost earnings and compensate you for pain and suffering.

Our Texas auto accident lawyers can help you file for compensation if you’ve been injured in an accident. 

Want to find out how much compensation you could be entitled to? Try our quick and easy personal injury calculator.

Who Is Liable for Your Car Accident?

Texas is a fault state, which means that a person injured in a car accident can seek compensation from the driver responsible. If your accident was caused by another driver’s negligence or recklessness (for example, if they were driving while distracted or intoxicated), you could get in touch with their insurance company after the accident to begin negotiating a settlement.

Even if you were partly responsible for your car accident, Texas is a modified comparative negligence state, which means you may still be able to claim compensation if you were no more than 50% at fault.

If your accident was caused by a road defect, such as a pothole, or a faulty car part, you might be able to claim compensation from the party responsible for maintaining the road or the manufacturer of the defective part, respectively.

After getting in touch with the at-fault party’s insurance company, you’ll likely hear from a claims adjuster, who will determine how much the insurance provider should pay based on the severity of your accident and injuries.

This is a complicated task, and it can be daunting dealing with insurance companies. Our experienced Texas car accident lawyers can help you determine who is liable for your accident, talk to insurers on your behalf, and negotiate the best settlement for you.