Rear-End Collision Injuries and How You Can Recover
February 23, 2024 | Sagi Shaked | Car Accidents
Rear-end collisions can do some serious damage, often resulting in neck or spinal injuries. Often, these are severe in nature, requiring lengthy recovery processes or causing permanent damage altogether.
If you’ve been injured in a rear-end crash, you may be wondering how you can help speed up the recovery process to get back on your feet and return to work. In these cases, car accident injury compensation may be the only option to help keep yourself afloat financially.
What Happens To Your Body in a Rear-End Collision?
A rear-ended car accident is a common type of crash, but it’s possible you may have never heard of the phrase before, causing you to wonder, “What does ‘rear-ended’ mean?” A rear-end crash occurs when a driver following you slams into the back of your vehicle.
In a rear-end collision, the head is accelerated forward at first. Once the driver brakes (or the vehicle collides with another car or object), the head is snapped backward. That sort of violent movement resembles the motion of a snapping whip, so the resulting injuries are often referred to as whiplash injuries.
Whiplash is a general term used to describe neck pain that occurs after that sort of motion, but being in a rear-ended car is one of the most common causes of a whiplash injury. In any case, whiplash is not the only sort of injury you can experience in a rear-end crash.
Common Rear-End Collision Injuries
Some of the most common types of rear-end accident injuries include the following:
- Neck injuries
- Back injuries
- Brain injuries
- Spinal injuries
- Nerve damage
- Torn muscles
In a typical rear-end collision, the victim’s neck is the body part that is most at risk of experiencing a serious injury. However, the severity of such neck injuries ranges considerably. Snapping your neck in a rear-end crash may cause minor soreness that quickly resolves, but it can also cause severe neck pain or even paralysis.
Additionally, the jerking motion caused in a rear-end crash can result in serious brain or spinal damage that ranges in severity based on factors like force, direction, and the location of the impact. As such, after you’re rear-ended, you should see a doctor immediately to ensure any injuries are promptly diagnosed.
Recovering From Rear-End Accident Injuries
It’s impossible to overstate how important it is to seek medical attention and follow a doctor’s instructions while recovering from rear-end accident injuries.
Always see a doctor after a rear-end crash, and always follow their instructions closely. That includes following advice for when and how you can return to work. Trying to return to regular life too soon is more likely to set your recovery back further by making your injuries worse.
It’s a huge mistake — both physically and financially — to ignore injury symptoms like pain or stiffness with the hope that they resolve with time. Pushing through them increases the risk of making your injuries worse, and if you do, your actions can be used to reduce your eventual injury compensation.
Medical Treatment After Being Rear-Ended
Knowing what to expect after being rear-ended and understanding what recovering from your injuries will entail depends on the way in which you were injured and how severe your injuries are.
In most cases, rear-end injury treatment and recovery may consist of a combination of the following:
- Medical exams
- Imaging
- Surgery
- Physical therapy
- Rest
It’s hard to say how long the recovery period can take. Whiplash, concussions, and soft tissue injuries can heal quickly for some people, but in other cases, symptoms may linger for an extended period of time, or complications might develop.
In scenarios where the spine or brain sustains serious damage in a rear-end crash, such injuries are instantly catastrophic. Possible outcomes include coma, paralysis, and death.
Protecting Yourself During Rear-End Collision Recovery
The steps you take after a rear-end collision can have a long-term impact on your finances, health, and quality of life. If you don’t realize that ahead of time, it can be hard to know what you should and shouldn’t do to protect yourself.
Things you shouldn’t do after a rear-end collision include things like:
- Arguing about who caused the accident
- Failing to call the police
- Stating that you’re uninjured
- Forgoing a doctor’s visit
- Ignoring a doctor’s advice
- Speaking to an insurance agent without consulting a lawyer
The above are all common mistakes, but they can each have a significant impact on your ability to receive rear-end collision compensation.
On the other hand, steps you should always take after getting rear-ended include the following:
- Calling the police
- Avoiding discussing the accident
- Getting contact information of witnesses
- Seeing a doctor right away
- Following all medical advice
- Consulting a lawyer before speaking to an insurance agent
- Letting your lawyer file your claim and negotiate the settlement
Following these steps can help ensure you aren’t deemed at fault and that you don’t lose out on insurance compensation. It also protects your health when you have injuries diagnosed early and follow all medical advice for the recovery period.
Getting Legal Help With Rear-End Collision Injury Costs
After you’re rear-ended, the resulting injuries can put a serious strain on your finances, but you shouldn’t have to bear the costs of another driver’s negligence. Thankfully, you don’t have to; a car accident lawyer can help identify whether you can recover compensation through the other driver’s insurance policy.
What is rear-end collision compensation? It refers to the damages you can receive as a result of the injuries you sustained in the crash. The driver in the back is usually found to be at fault in a rear-end crash, so if you were rear-ended, there is a good chance they could be liable for costs like medical bills and lost wages.
In addition, most car accident lawyers offer free consultations and work on contingency, so you shouldn’t have to pay anything upfront to get the legal help you need. As you recover from your rear-end car crash injuries, it’s worth consulting a lawyer for help recovering the compensation you need.
Rear-end collision recovery is by no means fun, but when you take the right steps, you can rest a little easier knowing you’re doing the best you can for your health and finances.
Contact Our Car Accident Law Firm in Miami, FL
If you’ve been injured in an accident in Miami, FL and need legal help, contact our Miami car accident lawyers at Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation.
Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers
20900 NE 30th Ave Suite 715
Aventura, FL 33180
(305) 937-0191