Low Impact Collisons

In a  previous blog entry I discussed the legal liability that can attach for following too closely on Indiana roads. Many of those incidents can result in what appears to be minor fender-benders. However, so-called “low impact cases” (those that generally involve speeds of less than 10 mph) can at times be deceiving. The amount of injury to a human body in a car accident is not always directly proportional to the damage to the cars involved in the traffic accident. This is a matter of energy management. We all know of incidents where vehicles have been completely torn to shreds but the driver walked away without a scratch, and other cases where despite minimal amount of visible property damage to the car, the occupants were seriously injured.

By way of example, one basic method for understanding energy management is the Indianapolis 500 race cars which splinter and disintegrate on impact. This disintegration is dispersing and managing energy so it does not go through the frame of the car and into the driver. If a car is struck and does not have much damage, the energy is being transferred through the car, i.e., the metal and the frame, into the softest part of the car–which is the human body occupying the car. This can result in significant soft tissue injuries, i.e. injuries to the ligaments, tendons and muscles. even at low speeds. An easy illustration of this is the novelty item with 5-6 balls suspended from a frame. You take the end ball and pull it back and let it strike the other grouping of 4-5 balls and the ball on the opposite end receives all of that energy and is catapulted forward and the energy goes back and forth through the middle 3-4 balls.

Neck and beck issues are particularly common in soft tissue injuries. Insurance companies tend to deny or minimize claims from low impact accidents, however.

If you have suffered bodily harm in a low impact crash, it is important to retain legal counsel with the experience and skills needed to obtain full compensation for your injuries. At Young and Young, we have represented thousands of Hoosiers with soft-tissue injuries. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a car accident, we have more than 55 years of experience waiting to help.