Are Car Accidents A Leading Cause of Broken Bones?
- February 23, 2021
It’s very common to suffer injuries in car accidents, but what are the most common types of injuries?
Did you know that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2.5 million Americans are seen in an emergency room after a motor vehicle accident
Broken bones and bone fractures are among some of the most commonly seen injuries.
Breaks and fractures occur when more force is exerted on your bones than it can absorb
Even if you haven’t been injured yourself in a car crash, you likely know someone that has been, and there’s a good chance they suffered a fracture.
Broken bones are not easily avoided during the impact of an auto accident.
Unfortunately, a bone break is a common injury that can have a significant impact on your life.
A broken bone resulting from a collision is an injury that is often more complex than a simple break.
A bone break from an accident can include multiple fractures, compound fractures, and some could require reconstructive surgery.
This could leave you incapacitated for months while you make a recovery.
It’s important to know the different kinds of broken bone injuries that are common during car accidents and what kind of treatments you may need afterward.
You also need to be prepared to take legal action if your accident and resulting injury was caused by someone else.
During your recovery, your financial well-being and overall quality of life could be negatively affected.
In the article below, we will discuss the significance of broken bones after car accidents and what you should do afterward and if you need a broken bone lawyer.
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Car Accidents Are a Leading Cause of Broken Bones
Your bone is likely to break when the force exerted on it is stronger than the force it can bear.
You’re likely to have a bone break in a car accident because your body absorbs a large amount of impact during a collision.
There are several ways you could suffer a break during a car accident, including:
- Bracing for impact or in an instinctive effort to protect your face or body during an accident.
- Getting by your airbag or a loose item tossed around the car.
- Slamming forward into your seat belt
- Striking the pavement after being ejected from your vehicle
- Being thrown forward or backward in the car
- Being compressed during the collision
- Hitting your dashboard or a window with a lot of force
- Being bent or twisted during the collision
Common Breaks and Fractures in a Car Accident
You can suffer a broken bone injury to any bone in your body.
Fractures and breaks in your body are classified as simple or compound.
Simple breaks do not break the skin.
A compound fracture is when the bone breaks your skin and exits the body, either through a rip or tear.
Both can result in secondary injuries, such as soft tissue injuries like muscle or ligament tears.
Most bone fractures will also result in the atrophy of muscle during the healing phase, which is when muscles waste away.
Specifically, the bones that you are most likely to break in a car accident include the:
- Femur
- Tibia/Fibula
- Ribs
- Hip and Pelvis
- Wrists
- Arms
- Facial and Skull Fractures
- Clavicle
- Back and Vertebrae
Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment of a Bone Injury
Broken bones are usually fairly obvious. But, sometimes, you might not realize you have one in the aftermath of a car accident.
After a car accident, when adrenaline runs through your system, you often won’t realize the extent of your injuries.
It’s important to seek medical attention after your accident so you can get an accurate diagnosis of your injury rather than having it get worse before it’s obvious you’ve been injured.
Symptoms of bone fractures symptoms can include:
- Intense pain in the area of the fracture, especially when you put weight on it or it is touched.
- Deformity
- Swelling, bruising, and tenderness
- Numbness and tingling
- Difficulty moving a limb.
X-rays, which are an excellent piece of evidence in a car accident case, are the most common method of diagnosing broken bones.
Bone scans, CT scans, and MRIs are also used to diagnose fractures, including stress fractures, which are not always easily detectable.
The treatment method your doctor decides to use with you will depend on the specifics of the injury to your body.
For broken bones to heal properly and completely, they have to be re-aligned and kept in place with little to no movement for weeks or months.
Treatment options include a plaster or fiberglass cast, a functional cast or brace, traction, external fixation or open reduction, and internal fixation.
Fractures are an injury that can take a long time to heal, often taking several weeks or several months to heal.
During your recovery, your movement will be limited, even after your cast or brace is removed.
You will also lose muscle strength and require physical therapy to restore your normal range of motion, flexibility, and muscle strength.
Don’t Wait to See a Doctor After an Accident
The worse thing you can do after an accident is put off seeking medical treatment.
However, many people are hesitant to see a doctor after an accident, usually out of fear of medical bills.
Whether you think you have a broken bone or any injury or not, you should always see a doctor that can tell you for sure.
It’s much better than going home and developing problems like headaches, pain, or swelling resulting from an injury that has gotten worse.
And, if you’d decline medical treatment at the scene of the accident, your insurance company will fight you if you later seek medical care.
And if your accident was caused by someone else, you will have a much harder time pursuing a personal injury claim to cover your damages.
This can leave you saddled with medical bills that should have been paid by someone else.
That’s why seeing a doctor immediately after an accident is a way to protect yourself if an unforeseen injury does arise.
Take Legal Action for Broken Bone Injuries After a Car Accident
Fractures, especially a fracture during a car accident, is an injury that will not heal on its own.
You will need medical attention for your injury to heal properly.
In extreme cases, especially if you delay medical attention, some injuries will never completely heal.
Broken bones left untreated can severely impair your quality of life and keep you from working, leading to a loss of income as well as various medical expenses.
If you recently sustained broken bones or suffered an injury due to a car crash due to the negligence of someone else, you have a legal right to compensation for your injuries.
A personal injury attorney at The Brown Firm with experience handling car accident cases that involve many types of fractures, whiplash, head injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and more is ready to help you today.
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