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Injuries from Minor Vehicle Collisions

by: MAricon Williams

Approximately 12.8 million motor vehicle accidents in the United States were reported on December 2003. This amounts to about one crash per second - quite an alarming data.

To boot, we should dispel myths, misconceptions and erroneous judgment about vehicular accidents. Some say that drunk persons don’t get injured as much. This is fallacious. A study showed that occupants of the vehicle who were aware of the immediate danger of collision had less severe injuries and considerably less at risk. Another erroneous assumption is that the amount of injury is directly proportionate to the amount of damage to the car. There can be grave inverse correlation between vehicle damage and injury levels. As the vehicle becomes more rigid or inflexible, damage costs are lessened however the occupant is susceptible to an increasing potential for injury.

Aside from the aforementioned assumption, others also believed that few residual spinal problems result from MVA injuries. The truth is that spinal injury is the primary concern in a collision. Minor injuries include cervical spine trauma, neck injuries, soft tissue abnormality, cervical-thoracic injury and post MVA disabilities.

Another misconception is that if a vehicle has a 2.5 m.p.h. bumper and said bumper was not damaged, the impact was under 2.5 m.p.h.
Empirical evidence discloses that in vehicle to vehicle collisions, the bumpers will not likely be damaged until bumper standard speed has been exceeded by a factor of 2 to 8 times. It is noteworthy that the design of modern bumpers often prevents the direct observation of bumper damage without physical removal of the bumper.

The vehicle’s speed determination can be both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative is typically subjective and involves personal observations of witnesses or participants. Quantitative determination, on the other hand, involves the determination of the precise number of range. This can be made in two ways. The first one is direct measurement and the second is the application of laws of physics to the physical evidence of collisions. Quantitative method though, has its limitations. Often there is limited physical data on pre-impact action or post-impact movements. As a consequence, it is often necessary to combine quantitative physical evidence and the qualitative observations of the participants regarding actions and movement.

The bottom line here is that in all vehicular accidents, no matter how minor the damage, the individual injured should seek medical attendance for examination or consultation so that he will know if there is grave damage and for the doctors to give him medication or treatment.

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