Whiplash Following a Rear-End Car Accident
An experienced accident attorney is familiar with the many common and serious injuries that accident victims experience following vehicle collisions. One of the most common injuries in auto accidents generally, and in a rear end collision car accident in particular, is known as a “whiplash” injury.
What is a Whiplash Neck Injury?
Whiplash injuries occur in motor vehicle accidents when there is a hyperextension of the accident victim’s cervical spine, or neck. Whiplash is also known as traumatic cervical syndrome (“TCS”) or acceleration/deceleration trauma. These types of neck injuries can be severe, and sometimes result in permanent disability including association with the onset of degenerative arthritis.
Symptoms of a Whiplash Neck Injury
A whiplash neck injury may include damage to ligaments, joints, vertebrae, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels. However, in a whiplash case, the accident victim might not experience neck pain immediately, and therefore might not realize that he or she is injured immediately after the automobile accident. As a result, the accident victim may initially refuse emergency medical attention, and will delay in seeking medical treatment. Nevertheless, within a few days, the whiplash victim will start to feel neck stiffness and pain that becomes increasingly severe.
Any head or neck movement in the whiplash sufferer will result in severe pain. This pain may radiate from the neck to the shoulders or arms and may radiate up into the base of the accident victim’s skull. The whiplash sufferer may also experience severe headaches, pain associated with chewing or otherwise opening and closing the jaw. Whiplash injury victims also may experience nausea, dizziness, and problems with memory or concentration.
How does a Whiplash Neck Injury Occur?
When one car rear-ends another, the torso of the accident victim who has been hit from behind is propelled forward at a high rate of speed. While the torso moves forward, the head and neck, unrestrained by a seatbelt or other restraint, snaps backward. The neck is therefore hyperextended, and the neck muscles are stretched rapidly.
After the hyperextension, the second part of the injury—hyperflexion—occurs. Hyperflexion occurs as the result of the rapid slowing of the vehicle that usually occurs when the accident victim who has been rear-ended is propelled into another car or other object and suddenly and violently stops.
Skepticism Regarding Whiplash Neck Injuries
Historically, the term “whiplash” has had negative connotations. Defense attorneys working for insurance companies attempt to portray whiplash neck injuries as faked or exaggerated, especially given the delay in onset of whiplash symptoms, as discussed above.
To this day, although whiplash neck injuries are legitimate and recognized within respected medical literature, insurance company defense attorneys will attempt to portray whiplash injuries as feigned, in whole or in part. In projecting this skepticism about whiplash neck injuries, insurance company attorneys will attempt to play off of misconceptions about the extent of so-called “frivolous” accident litigation.
Accordingly, it is important, if you are suffering from a whiplash neck injury following a car accident, to hire an attorney who is familiar with the many ways in which whiplash injuries can be proven, to a jury, to be a legitimate and severe injury worthy of substantial and fair compensation.
Proving your Whiplash Neck Injury
Remember, as the plaintiff in a potential lawsuit, it is your burden to prove your injuries and damages. Accordingly, if you are suffering from a whiplash neck injury following an automobile collision, your personal injury attorney has to prove, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the accident caused your neck injury, and that you experienced pain and suffering and other damages as a result.
Proving your whiplash neck injury will likely involve calling expert medical witnesses, such as orthopedists, pathologists, radiologists, or chiropractors.
