Americans depend on motor vehicles for daily transportation to work, school, and activities, but the more time a motorist spends on the road, the more likely they’ll experience an accident. National data shows that 77 percent of drivers report having been in at least one car accident. On a 1,000-mile road trip, the odds of experiencing a crash are about one in 366. But what exactly happens to a human body during a car accident and what are the most common injuries?
According to traffic experts, the force of a car accident even at a sedate 30 miles per hour puts the same trauma on the human body as a fall from the third story of a building or an impact from a charging a 3.5-ton elephant. As a car hurtles forward, it creates tremendous momentum energy. The force that results when a collision brings that energy to a sudden stop is called the crash force. According to the formula used to calculate crash force, an average 125-pound adult becomes a 6,875-pound force in an accident. This is the amount of force the body experiences as it’s propelled forward against a seatbelt and then back against the seat as the vehicle comes to an abrutpt halt.
All collisions cause destructive crash force, but a collision with a softer or movable object creates less force than a collision with a solid, immobile object or an object moving toward another with its own force—like an oncoming vehicle. This means a driver faced with a choice between a collision with another vehicle, tree, or metal guardrail, or a collision with bushes, an embankment, or sandbags on the side of a highway should always choose the softer object that will absorb more of crash force in a collision.
Seatbelts unquestionably save lives by preventing the occupants of a vehicle from hitting the interior of the car with the tremendous crash force of an accident or from being propelled through the window, but the force of the body’s pressure against the seatbelt and then back again in an accident, as well as impacts from metal and plastic crushing inward, cause serious injuries or fatalities.
Seatbelts and airbags have improved accident survival statistics significantly, but car crashes still commonly result in injuries ranging from minor and inconvenient to catastrophic or fatal. Our experienced car accident attorneys in Atlanta have seen these injuries vary depending on the type of motor vehicle accident and the speed of the vehicle at the time of the crash. Common car accident injuries include:
Crash force experts explain that there are three collisions in every car accident:
First, the collision of the car with another vehicle, an obstacle, or the ground (in a rollover). Then, the collision inside the vehicle of the body against the seatbelt. Finally, the collision inside the body as the organs and bone structure collide. It’s that final collision inside the human body that’s responsible for the most serious car accident injuries.
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