Why Side-Impact Car Accidents Often Cause Serious Spinal Injuries
Why Side-Impact Car Accidents Often Cause Serious Spinal Injuries
Our office recently agreed to represent a young man who was in a car accident. The car accident was a side-impact collision. Specifically, our client was proceeding straight when he was hit at a high rate of speed on his passenger side door.
The side-impact was not of the t-bone variety. Instead, it was a side-impact where the client’s vehicle was sideswiped. The other vehicle was headed in the same direction as the client. As they rounded a turn, the other vehicle failed to maintain its lane and impacted our client’s car.
The Forces in Side-Impact Crashes are Different than Those in a Rear End Car Accident
In a rear end car accident, a vehicle is impacted from behind by another motor vehicle. When this occurs, the car is pushed forward causing the occupant to move back with tremendous force. Then, when the vehicle comes to rest the occupant moves forward.
In sum, a rear end crash causes the occupant to move backward from the initial impact and then forward after the vehicle comes to a stop. Most people who are in a rear end car accident believe their body only moves forward. They only can recollect the end movement where they are flung forward. The initial movement at impact, where the body is forced backward, happens so fast that most people do not realize it occurred.
Automobile Seats Are Designed to Minimize Rear End Car Accident Injuries
In a rear end car accident, the upper body usually travels further than the lower body. As a result of this movement, the upper body, neck and head experience more changes in force. The lower body moves less due to how the seats are configured.
An occupant in a car sits with his buttocks on the seat bottom and his lower back is typically resting against the seat back. However, the occupant’s neck and head are usually positioned upright and not contacting the seatback while driving. Because of this, when a rear end impact occurs, the lower back travels a minimal distance in a backward direction.
This is not to say that this movement is not capable of causing injuries. It certainly is. It is just not as pronounced as the movement of the head and neck.
In a rear end car accident, an individual’s head and neck will move six to twelve inches before it makes contact with the seat back and head rest. In fact, a head rest is specifically designed to minimize injury by stopping the head from snapping backward. However, the unrestrained backward movement at impact is often what causes whiplash.
A headrest can help minimize serious spinal injuries. Since the headrest stops the head from travelling further, it can prevent the head from folding backward over the top of a seatback and severing the spinal cord. In fact, before headrests were invented and standard in automobiles, rear end car accidents caused several serious injuries this way.
Proper Posture for Using a Headrest
For a headrest to achieve its designed purpose, an occupant must have his head in contact with it, or close to it, at the time of a rear end impact. This prevents an occupant’s head from moving back significantly at impact. As a result, the G-forces on the neck are less and injuries are minimized.
For example, professional race car drivers are often seated in their cars with their head in contact with the seat back at all times. Likewise, these drivers have seats that also offer side impact protection. This includes seats that have side supports specifically designed to minimize the movement of the head from side to side.
Certain rollercoasters also offer similar side protection. Most people have ridden on a rollercoaster that provides padding on both sides of their heads. This padding is designed to mitigate the side-to-side movement that the head will experience on a violent rollercoaster ride. Car accidents can be equally as violent but without seats designed to protect the head and neck from sideways movements.
Automobile Seats Are Not Designed to Minimize Side-Impact Car Accident Injuries
The normal seats in cars and trucks do not offer adequate side-impact safety features to prevent injuries in serious crashes. The automotive manufacturers know that these seats would be the safest for consumers. However, outfitting vehicles with them would not be aesthetically pleasing or practical.
When people drive on a routine basis, they are not driving with their shoulder blades pressed against their seat backs. Drivers and passengers are typically not resting their heads against a head rest unless they are sleeping. To offer an occupant an optimal side-impact safety seat, padded supports would need to be built into the seat which would encase both sides of an occupant’s head.
These supports would need to protrude forward into the vehicle cabin. This would make turning an occupant’s head, to look at other passengers, difficult if not impossible. Simply put, providing optimal side-impact head and neck safety protection for an automobile seat would not be practical or pleasing for the average consumer.
Spinal Injuries Occur More Frequently In Side-Impact Collisions
Spinal injuries frequently occur in side-impact car accidents since consumer motor vehicle seats are not optimally designed to minimize these injuries. As a result, our law firm frequently sees side-impact car accidents where our clients have suffered neck and spinal trauma. Often times, these car accident impacts may not be at high speeds.
The Piccuta Law Group has handled and evaluated hundreds of car accident claims and cases. From this experience, we have determined that an individual who is involved in a side-impact car accident is much more likely to sustain a cervical spinal injury than an individual who was involved in a rear end crash.
This is especially true at medium speeds where the impacts are with moderate force. This is because the headrests typically serve their purpose in a moderate impact crash. In sum, they stop the backward movement of the head and help reduce injuries or the severity of those injuries.
On the other hand, in a moderate side-impact crash, there is nothing to restrain an occupant’s side-to-side head movement. The individual will be forcefully thrown toward the center console and his or her head will snap sideways as a result. Worse yet, the individual may be thrown toward his or her driver or passenger side window. In these situations, unless the vehicle has side impact airbags that have deployed, the individual will strike his or her head against the window.
How Car Insurance Companies Handle Side Impact Car Accident Claims
Insurance companies handle side-impact car accident claims no different than any other type of car accident claim. Unfortunately, if there is a low to moderate impact, the insurance company may be skeptical of resulting injuries. When an insurance company does not see a compelling crash or significant vehicle damage, it naturally believes no serious injuries should result.
The severity of a crash does not dictate when an injury may occur. Obviously, the more severe a car accident is, the greater the chance of injuries and serious injuries. However, there is no precise correlation between car accidents and resulting injuries.
Someone can be in a low impact car accident, with very little vehicle damage, and sustain injuries. Another person can be in a severe crash, where both vehicles are totaled, and walk away perfectly fine. Indeed, both situations occur every single day.
How our Car Accident Attorneys Present Side-Impact Car Accidents to Insurance Companies
As discussed, car insurance companies usually equate crash severity and vehicle damage to the extent of injuries. While this approach is never justified, it makes more sense in a rear-end car accident where the headrest and upper seat back are expected to minimize injury severity. On the other hand, in a side-impact crash, this type of reasoning by an insurance company should be discredited and discarded.
In a side-impact crash, this type of reasoning by an insurance company should be discredited and discarded.
When our car accident attorneys present a side-impact car accident claim, we make sure to explain the biomechanics of the crash. We set forth an explanation as to why the client experienced increased G-forces on his or her head and neck due to the lack of optimal side-impact head safety equipment. We then explain why the increased G-forces existed and how those forces caused our client to sustain injury.
This approach has been successful in resolving side-impact car accident claims for our clients. The insurance companies need this explained to them in order to pay fair and reasonable settlements to the injured individual. Once the insurance company understands the mechanism of the injury, it is much more likely to offer adequate compensation.
Contact An Experienced Car Accident Attorney to Handle Your Car Accident Claim
If you or a loved one was injured in a car accident, contact the Piccuta Law Group today. Our car accident lawyers have over two decades of experience handling a variety of car accident claims. Our experience allows us to present car accident claims in a way where the insurance company is most likely to pay full compensation for your injuries. A consultation is free and you do not pay us a dime unless we recover compensation for you.
About the author: The content on this page was written by California personal injury attorney and civil rights lawyer Charles “Tony” Piccuta. Piccuta graduated with honors from Indiana University-Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana (Previously ranked Top 35 US News & World Report). Piccuta took and passed the State bars of Arizona, California, Illinois and Nevada (all on the first try). He actively practices throughout California and Arizona. He is a winning trial attorney that regularly handles serious personal injury cases and civil rights lawsuits. He has obtained six and seven figure verdicts in both state and federal court. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers for six years straight. He is AV Rated by Martindale Hubble. He is a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California, American Association for Justice, National Police Accountability Project, Arizona Association of Justice, and many local county and City bar associations.
Disclaimer: The information on this web site is attorney advertising and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Reading and relying upon the content on this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you are seeking legal advice, you should contact our law firm for a free consultation and to discuss your specific case and issues.
