If you’re a regular driver, you know that accidents take place on the road constantly. Maybe you’ve seen one, or perhaps you’ve actively participated in one. When they happen, soft tissue injuries can be the result. Whiplash remains at the top of that list.
Every year sees over three million whiplash injuries, and many individuals experience ongoing pain from them. This pain can go away after days, weeks, or months. In this article, we’ll discuss whiplash injuries. We’ll talk about how they happen and how you can avoid them.
What Does the Term “Whiplash” Mean?
The term whiplash in the medical community means a soft tissue injury that occurs if an individual’s head and neck whip abruptly back and forth. This can happen in car wrecks, but it can also occur in other situations. For instance, if your head and neck whip back and forth sharply when you’re playing sports, that can cause whiplash. If someone grabs you and jerks your body hard, that can cause it in some circumstances.
Why Does Whiplash Remain Such a Problem?
Regarding car wrecks, whiplash remains a common injury because certain car accident types often cause it. Usually, when your head and neck jerk quickly back and forth, damaging the vertebrae, it happens because a car hits you from behind. This accident, called a fender bender or a rear-end collision, might happen in different circumstances.
It might happen because you stopped abruptly, and there’s a car right behind you that can’t stop in time. Maybe a panicked deer or some other animal runs across the road, and you must instantly apply the brakes.
Sometimes, a person runs across the road, or you encounter a sudden obstacle. When you apply the brakes, if there’s someone tailgating you, which means they’re riding your bumper, they might slam on the brakes as well, but their continued momentum causes a wreck.
When this happens, the impact causes the head and neck motion that constitutes whiplash. Since many reckless drivers tailgate the cars ahead of them, these injuries remain a problem as the years pass. No matter how many commercials mention defensive driving, and no matter how many individuals must attend remedial driver safety classes after causing wrecks, it seems like whiplash injuries from car wrecks remain a danger for drivers.
Why Whiplash Injuries Hurt and Linger More Than You Might Imagine
If you’re not breaking any bones, you might wonder why a whiplash injury takes so long to recover from or why they’re more severe than their description might indicate. It’s because the neck can be quite delicate.
You can hurt your neck just by sleeping on it in a weird position for a few hours. With that in mind, you can easily imagine how a sudden jolt impacts the head and neck. At the time the other driver hits your car, you might not think anything very bad occurred. You may feel a little sore, but you won’t realize till later that the other driver caused severe damage.
In the moment, your adrenaline from the accident can mask the injury’s severity. You might say you’re okay if the other driver or a police officer asks about your condition. Only in the hours to come will you realize you sustained a soft tissue injury that might last for a while.
Also, the harder someone hits you from behind, the worse your whiplash case. If someone hits you going 10 miles per hour, that’s bad enough. Imagine how sore your neck will feel if someone hits you going 40 miles per hour or more. Reckless drivers who tailgate those ahead of them often do this, even when they’re not on the highway.
What Can You Do About Whiplash Injuries?
If you sustain a whiplash injury from a car wreck, unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. You’ll need time so the injury can heal. You can certainly see a doctor, and they can take some X-rays. X-rays seldom reveal much with soft tissue injuries, though, so you may need an MRI as well. MRIs can indicate what’s happening with soft tissues much better than X-rays.
If your MRI shows a whiplash injury, the doctor might recommend that you wear a neck brace for a while. That can stabilize your neck. You can remove it when you sleep, but you should wear it the rest of the time, even if it looks a little awkward. You might also treat the pain with over-the-counter pain meds like Tylenol or Advil. You might try ice packs or heat packs on your neck as well.
How Can You Prevent These Injuries?
As for preventing these injuries, it’s sometimes difficult. You may feel you’re a very safe driver, but that doesn’t mean everyone else on the road follows your example.
If you see someone tailgating you, you can get away from them as fast as possible. If you’re on the highway, change lanes so they can pass you. If they’re riding your bumper, that puts you danger, since a sudden stop can cause one of these injuries.
Looking at the driver behaviors around you can give you clues about who you must avoid. Someone who’s gunning the motor, speeding, or acting erratically isn’t an individual you want anywhere near you. Creating distance as quickly as possible makes sense.
If someone hits your car and you sustain whiplash, after seeing a doctor, you might consider suing them. That may become necessary if you have to miss work for an extended period or you have many expensive doctor bills that your insurance does not cover.
Suing someone isn’t much fun, but if you can establish that you sustained a neck injury from someone driving recklessly, you can probably win. Your lawyer will take a cut of your winnings, but you can use the remaining money for medical bills and to recoup your lost wages. Getting litigious in these situations often makes sense.
Published by HOLR Magazine.