Many people believe that the seriousness of a passenger's injuries in an automobile accident may be discerned from the extent to which the automobile has been damaged. That is, if the damage to the car is minimal, then the injuries suffered by the passengers must be minimal, too. But those who have been involved in low-impact and rear-end collisions know this is not always the case.
Even an accident that occurs at speeds as low as 2.5 miles per hour (MPH) can result in life-long pain for those involved in the accident.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Automobile passengers commonly suffer soft tissue injuries in low-impact collisions. These injuries are characterized by stretching and tears in the connective tissue between the bones and joints, including tendons, muscles and ligaments. Nerve damage may also accompany these types of injuries.
Rear-end collisions often cause hyperextension-hyperflexion, also known as "whiplash," although any type of accident may cause these sorts of injuries. A whiplash injury occurs when the body absorbs the momentum from the impact with the other vehicle, causing the head to snap forward and back. As the head snaps forward and back, the soft tissue in the neck may be injured from the force of the impact. The injury may be from a ligament tear or a more serious disc herniation or protrusion. Whiplash injuries also can result in traumatic brain injuries.
Some of the symptoms of a whiplash injury include:
• Blurry vision
• Headaches, concussion
• Neck stiffness, pain
• Jaw pain
• Tingling or pain down through the shoulders into the arms
• Nausea, vertigo
• Nervousness, restlessness, inability to concentrate
• Tension, irritability
Low-impact collisions also can result in upper and lower back pain and pain in other joints, including in the hips, knees and ankles. These accidents also can exacerbate existing injuries.
The Injuries Can be Long Term
An individual may not immediately know that he or she has suffered a soft tissue injury after an accident. In some cases, soft-tissue injuries can continue to cause a person pain even after the initial injury has healed, particularly if scar tissue develops, which can irritate or disrupt the nerves, causing pain.
Those who have suffered soft tissue injuries may experience other long-term effects in addition to pain caused by scarring, including:
• Muscle spasms
• Narrowing of the disc space in the spine
• Changes to the curvature of the spine
Proving Presence of Injury
For several reasons, it is often difficult to prove soft tissue injuries with objective evidence. First, there is a bias against finding an injury if the damage to the vehicle in the accident was minimal. A defense attorney is likely to argue that the plaintiff is making the injury up or exaggerating the amount of pain he or she feels to win the case.
Second, soft tissue injuries are not visible. In some cases, they will not show up with the most common types of diagnostic testing, like MRIs, CT Scans and X-rays. Lastly, pain is subjective. No two people experience pain in the same way: an injury that may be very painful to one person may not be very painful to another person.
These difficulties do not mean, however, that victims who suffer soft tissue injuries are unable to recover compensation for their pain. The burden is on the plaintiff to prove that his or her injuries were caused by the accident. An attorney experienced in bringing soft tissue injury claims can determine which types of evidence will be best suited to prove this claim. In nearly every case this will include expert witness testimony from physicians and others who can testify to the existence of the injury and the type of pain it may cause.
Scientific Research Proves that Collisions With No Property Damage Cause Injury
The largest human volunteer crash study is called the Brault study which was published in 1997 by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Scientists took 42 very healthy, young volunteers (21 males and 21 females) who all passed a medical exam which included x-rays that showed no or minimal degenerative disc disease. None of the subjects had prior injury claims or prior neck or back injuries.
Each subject was placed in a car which was hit from behind by another vehicle and the subjects were not made aware of the impending impact. At 2.5 MPH, 29% of the subjects experienced neck injury. At 5.0 MPH, 38 % experienced neck injury.
Further, the vehicles were hit over 100 times in the crash study and there was NO or ZERO property damage to the vehicles after being hit over 100.
