North Carolina Car Accident Lawyer

The human body has many soft tissues, especially in the neck and back. Soft tissue injuries that result from a car accident can include sprains, strains, bruises, and whiplash. Commonly, neck and back injuries involving soft tissues can occur resulting from an auto accident, with whiplash being one of the most common soft tissue injuries. A sprain is a stretched or torn ligament such as a sprained ankle. A physician will take an X-ray to rule out bone fractures and examine the area. Strains are also common injuries in a car wreck. A strain can be either a stretched or torn tendon that connects muscles to one another and to bones.

The most common neck injury in a car accident is a soft tissue injury. Doctors call these whiplash, neck sprains, or neck strains. Whiplash injuries are very common in car accidents. A car accident can cause your head to snap forward like a whip, thus the name. This abrupt movement causes damage to the soft tissue. A whiplash can have symptoms that are both physical pain and cognitive issues.

Signs and symptoms of a neck injury are:

• Neck stiffness
• Radiating pain from the neck down to the shoulders and/or arms
• Swelling and bruising
• Tenderness
• Muscle weakness or paralysis of the arms or legs
• Decrease in sensation in the arms, legs, or body
• Difficulty in breathing

In the United States, car and other vehicle crashes are the most common cause of spinal cord injuries. Even car accidents that seem minor can cause back injuries because your spine can’t absorb the impact. Back injuries caused by car accidents can be sprains and strains, herniated or bulging discs, or fractured vertebra. Injuries to your back can severely affect your life long-term. Common back injuries caused by auto accidents include, but are not limited to:

• Whiplash – Whiplash often results from low-speed rear-end collisions. When the force of the impact from a vehicle crash makes the head jerk back and forth quickly, the motion can stretch or tear the neck’s muscles and tendons.
• Muscle strains and sprains – Impact from an auto accident can cause muscles and ligaments to stretch and tear away from their attachments. Symptoms include pain, stiffness, limited range of motion, and spasms.
• Spinal disc injuries – Spinal discs are in between vertebrae. The impact of an automobile crash can cause a disc injury that will press on nerves causing a great deal of pain and discomfort.
• Spinal cord injuries – Sudden blows to the spine can cause severe, permanent, and disabling injuries. Spinal cord injuries are the worst type of back injuries. A spinal cord injury can cause total or partial paralysis, chronic pain, blood clots, infections, and other severe problems.
• Lumbar and thoracic spine injuries – The lumbar area of the spine is the lowest part of the spine. Doctors use a numbering system for vertebrae with the lumbar spine being L1 to L5. These are the largest vertebrae. A car accident can strain or sprain the muscles of the lumbar spine. In doing so, there is lower back pain, swelling, and bruising, which limits the car accident victim’s ability to move. The thoracic spine is the upper and middle back, between the neck and lumbar spine and supporting the rib cage. Injuries to the thoracic spine can be the most severe back injuries. A car accident involving high speed can injure the thoracic spine and lead to permanent nerve damage.

Nerve damage caused by a car accident is called “peripheral neuropathy.” This means that damage is to the nerves located outside the brain and spinal cord. When these nerves are damaged, you can experience pain, numbness, or loss of function in one or more body parts. Nerve injury from a car accident is sharp and immediate, can be severe, and can last a very long time. A physician specializing in nerve disorders (neurologist) is required to treat the condition. Nerve injury can cause someone to lose the ability to work and perform everyday tasks. Recovering full function from a nerve injury can occur but it takes time.

Chronic pain can stem from an automobile accident over time, even after an injury from an accident has healed. Inflammation, nerve damage, and muscle tension can cause chronic pain. There are treatments such as pain medication and ice, as well as physical therapy, that can help short-term.

Either damage to the spine or damage to the brain can cause paralysis. Trauma experienced in a car accident can bruise the spinal cord, partially tear it, or completely sever the spinal cord. Typically, an injury to the spinal cord will result in either a partial or complete paralysis that is either temporary or permanent. The type of paralysis depends on the nature and severity of the injuries to the spinal cord. The different types of paralysis you can experience following an accident include:

• Monoplegia – paralysis that affects only one limb
• Hemiplegia – paralysis that affects one side of the body
• Diplegia – paralysis that affects the same area on both sides of the body, such as both legs or both arms
• Paraplegia – paralysis that affects both legs and, in some cases, the lower half of the body
• Quadriplegia – paralysis that affects both arms and legs and, in some cases, the body from the neck down

Broken bones resulting from a car accident are common injuries. Here are some of the most common broken bones in a car accident:

• Arm fractures
• Wrist fractures
• Tibia and/or fibula fractures
• Femur fractures
• Clavicle fractures
• Rib fractures
• Back fractures
• Hip fractures

Head injuries are some of the most common car accident injuries. A head injury can cause mild pain that heals after a few days or severe damage that lasts long-term. Head injury, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and brain injury are often used interchangeably. Symptoms vary depending on the severity of a head injury. A concussion that is the result from a minor head injury can still temporarily impair brain function. Difficulties such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, depression, irritability, and memory problems can follow brain injury. Even after many years, limitations of activity can follow a brain injury regardless of its severity. For example, trouble hearing what is said in a group conversation and trouble hearing what is said in a one-to-one conversation were the most commonly reported limitations of activity from the Health and Activity Limitations Survey.

The severity of injuries suffered by drivers and passengers depends on many factors, some of which include the following:

• Whether the injured person was wearing a seat belt
• Where the car was hit from the rear, side, or front
• The position the person was facing at the time of the accident–facing straight ahead or turned
• Whether it was a low-speed or high-speed crash
• Whether the car was equipped with airbags

Injuries from auto accidents fall into two categories: 1) impact injuries and 2 ) penetrating injuries. Impact injuries are caused when the body hits some part of the interior of the car (for instance, a head hitting the side window). Penetrating injuries are caused usually by cuts from shattering glass. A significant type of injury is soft tissue damage to the connective tissue and is in the category of impact injuries. An example of a connective tissue injury is whiplash.