Back and spinal cord injuries are among the most common injuries sustained in car accidents. When you’re in a crash, the car comes to a stop abruptly, and the force can be absorbed by your back or neck.
Another common way back injuries happen when you’re thrown around inside the vehicle. The sudden, sharp movements can cause serious trauma. So can hitting solid surfaces, such as the dashboard or the roof. Think of it this way: however fast the vehicle is travelling when you’re in the accident, your body can continue to move until it’s snapped back by your seatbelt or until you crash into a surface. That fast acceleration and sudden stop can create enough force to cause serious harm.
Finally, if you’re thrown from the vehicle in a serious crash, your likelihood of serious spinal cord trauma is even greater. The impact of hitting the ground with force after being thrown a distance can be enough to cause life-changing or even life-threatening injuries.
Types of Back Injuries in Car Accidents
Any kind of car accident can cause back injury—even a minor fender bender. However, some types of crashes are especially associated with specific injuries:
- Side impact accidents can cause a range of back injuries. Injuries to the upper back and the neck are more common, however, since the seat belt generally holds the lower body in place.
- Front impact crashes cause the head to be thrown forward, so they most commonly cause herniated or torn disks, especially in the upper spine or neck area.
- Rear-end accidents cause your body to snap forward and your torso to move up, which can cause whiplash, ligament injury, and cervical vertebrae trauma.
No matter what kind of accident you’ve been in, it’s important to get a medical examination. Too often, survivors of accidents develop symptoms slowly, especially if they have soft tissue damage. Chronic back pain is also common after car accidents. The sooner you get an accurate diagnosis, the sooner you can start treatment so you can begin healing.
What Impacts My Injuries?
How severe your car accident injuries will be will depend on a few factors, including:
- Your age and general health before the accident
- The speed of the crash
- Whether the car rolls over
- Objects inside the car that could crash against you in a collision
- The type of accident
- Seatbelts
- The size of your car and the safety features (such as side impact air bags) it has
Common Back Injuries From Car Accidents
There are many kinds of back injuries that can happen if you’re in a car accident:
- Fractures can happen to the back because your spine is made up of vertebrae, which are bones. Fractures are serious and while some can heal, some types of fractures can cause permanent paralysis or even fatalities.
- Herniated discs happen when the cushioning between the spine’s vertebrae move. This can cause numbness and severe pain.
- Thoracic spine injuries are sprains and fractures to the mid-spine area. This type of injury can cause weakness, severe pain, tingling, or numbness.
- Lumbar spine injury can include sprains, strains, or fractures to your lower back. This can cause paralysis, incontinence, mobility problems, numbness, severe pain, or weakness.
- Facet joint injuries can happen anywhere on your spine, when the joints between the vertebrae become inflamed, dislocated, or broken.
No matter what your diagnosis, if you have been injured in a car accident and have suffered a back injury, you may want to contact Flaxman Law Group as soon as possible after your injury to schedule a free accident consultation.
Severe back injuries can impact your ability to earn an income and live your life. Medical treatment can be expensive, especially if you need ongoing pain management or surgery. Getting fair compensation is a priority to protect your finances.
Flaxman Law Group may be able to help. We have more than 60 years of combined experience pursuing fair compensation for our clients and we have secured multiple multi-million dollar settlements and court wins. To find out what we may be able to do for you, call Flaxman Law Group at 866-352-9626 or contact us online to schedule a free accident consultation.