Types of Car Accident Injuries

 Posted on December 20, 2014 in Personal Injury

Even seemingly minor car accidents can lead to serious medical problems if they go untreated. Accident victims often face a variety of unfamiliar medical terms that can make the whole examination and treatment process more confusing. However, it is important that patients pursue such examination and treatment promptly.

This speed is important because of a legal doctrine known as a statute of limitations. Statutes of limitations are laws that place time limits on people's ability to bring lawsuits for harms that they have suffered. Connecticut's statute of limitations for injury in a car accident is unusually short. Victims only have two years from the time when they discover or should have discovered their injury before courts bar them from recovering damages for their injuries. This makes it especially important for people to understand their injuries, so that they can bring them to an attorney.

Soft Tissue Injuries

One of the most common type of injury that people suffer as a result of car accidents is soft tissue injury. These are injuries to the tissues that support a person's skeleton, like muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Common soft tissue injuries include hematomas, sprains, and strains. A particularly common type of soft tissue injury is “whiplash,” which is an unusual strain on the tissue in the neck. It is often a result of the rapid deceleration that occurs during a car accident, which can damage the ligaments in a person's neck.

Soft tissue injuries are often less serious than other types of injuries that can be sustained during a car accident, but they can also present specific problems. For instance, they are difficult to diagnose conclusively, and they can lead to more serious harms if left untreated.

Broken Bones

Another common injury that can result from car accidents is a broken bone. Broken bones can vary widely in their severity, from simple hairline fractures to more serious breaks. The severity of the fracture is defined by a wide array of characteristics, including the size of the break, how the bones have shifted internally, and damage to other nearby tissue.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Another serious injury that can result from car accidents is traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs deserve special attention because they can be difficult to detect and very serious. A TBI occurs when a person's brain shakes in his or her skull, damaging the brain. This sort of injury can lead to concussions, headaches, nausea, strokes, seizures, and even coma or death in more severe cases. Checking for a TBI is an important part of any post-accident examination.

Car accidents can cause serious injuries, and Connecticut law places a time limit on filing a lawsuit. If you have recently been injured in an accident and want to learn more about your rights, contact a knowledgeable Hartford car accident attorney at Woolf Law Firm, LLC today. Call 860-290-8690 for an initial consultation.