5 Permanent Injuries Car Accidents Can Cause

Some people don’t particularly like driving, while others love it. If you belong to this second category, then you probably turn to look when a tricked-out car goes by. You might enjoy classic car shows or read the latest automotive magazines to see what new technology is coming out over the next couple of years.

Driving can be great fun, but the automotive world has a dark side. That’s the many accidents that take place each year and the resulting injuries. You might feel differently about cars if you’re in a debilitating accident.

Here are five permanent injuries that can happen in car crashes.

Vital Organ Damage

Medical science considers a vital organ to be something like:

  • The spleen
  • The liver
  • The pancreas

Any of these can sustain significant car accident damage. Generally, the faster your vehicle speed, or that of the other car, the more devastating the injuries. That’s why you should make sure to drive the speed limit and obey all traffic laws.

There are also the financial considerations about which you should think. The National Safety Council states that a disabling injury costs the responsible driver approximately $96,200. That should be ample reason to drive carefully.

Crushed Limbs

It’s also possible that a car accident can crush one of your limbs. This is more likely if:

  • You or the other car is driving over the speed limit
  • The other vehicle T-bones your car
  • There is a multiple-car pileup

This isn’t the sort of injury that you get from a fender-bender. You need to be traveling fast for this to happen, or the two vehicles need to make solid contact. Also, if the accident involves several cars, there’s more chance that this sort of thing might occur.

People don’t like to think about crushed or mangled limbs very much. If it happens, sometimes the doctors can perform corrective surgery that can help to some extent. Other times, there might be such severe damage that they have little choice except for amputation.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries are some of the worst that can happen during a car accident. That’s because any time you’re dealing with this body part, there is paralysis risk.

If you only bruise your spinal column, you should recover in time. If there is extensive disk damage, the doctors will have fewer options regarding what they can do to help you.

Still, medical science is better with these injuries than it used to be. There are canes, crutches, wheelchairs, and other ways to help you get around, assuming the paralysis is not total.

You can also sometimes come back from these injuries to some degree through extensive physical therapy. It probably won’t be easy, though. You might have to spend many months or even years trying to get back to your full motion and mobility range.

Head Injuries

There is also a whole car accident head injury range. You might be looking at a concussion, which can be minor or more serious. If you have a prior concussion history, that’s often more problematic.

You also might suffer a traumatic brain injury, that doctors sometimes abbreviate TBI. Like spinal injuries, there are different TBI degrees.

Some of them are completely devastating, leaving you barely functional. The injury might affect the body’s speech center, or you might have mobility or muscle movement issues.

Much like spinal column damage, you may be able to retrain your body to get past a head injury if you work hard at it. It all depends on what part of the brain you damaged and how bad of a hit you took.

Burns

Severe burns can occur in some car accidents. Maybe one of the vehicles catches fire before an occupant can escape from it.

If that happens, it’s probably going to be extremely painful for you. People often say that burns hurt worse than just about anything else, especially if you’re talking about an extensive body portion.

You might recover somewhat, but you’ll likely have disfiguring scars. That can be the toughest thing for some burn victims, even worse than the pain. It’s hard to cover up burn scars, even with the best plastic surgery.

All of this seems rather grim, but it shouldn’t dampen your vehicle enthusiasm. You can still like cars and enjoy both new ones and classics. Just remember that vehicles are not toys, and you need to conduct yourself carefully every time you get behind the wheel and gun the engine.