Drivers often suffer serious injuries or die when their cars are struck by tractor-trailers. While bone fractures or cuts are serious, victims often can recover from them. More profound injuries, such as head or spinal cord injuries caused by truck crashes can have a lasting impact on an individual’s life.
Head Injuries Caused by Truck Crashes
When your brain is forced to move both rapidly and aggressively within your skull, it can cause a wide range of problems to develop. Blood vessels may be severed, contusions to its core may develop and blood clots may form.
While some motorists involved in truck crashes may suffer concussions that resolve over time, others may seem fine initially only to develop telltale signs of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) on down the line. Symptoms a patient experiences may vary from physical to mental complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that over 150 Americans are diagnosed with TBIs die each day.
Spinal Cord Injuries Caused by Truck Crashes
Trucks aren’t only large, but also extremely heavy in comparison with passenger vehicles once loaded. This is one of the reasons that there’s a strong likelihood of a motorist suffering a potentially fatal spinal cord injury (SCI) in a crash.
Rear-End Truck Crash
Oftentimes with rear-end crashes a trucker will make an impact with such force that it fractures a driver’s spine. Even when that doesn’t occur, it’s possible that even the slightest amount of force can dislodge an individual’s vertebrae causing his or her spinal cord to either become compressed or crushed.
Those who suffer SCIs may experience either partial or complete paralysis throughout their limbs. Medical treatment for individuals who suffer injuries to their spinal cords is constant and can be costly. Equipping homes and cars to accommodate an SCI victim is also an expensive and involved process. Victims who damage their spinal cords experience significant lifestyle changes.
Truck Accident Injuries are Costly
Costs associated with caring for the medical needs of those who suffer either brain or spinal cord injuries is only one factor that families of those who are hurt in tractor-trailer crashes have to deal with. A Houston attorney can explain how the filing of a personal injury lawsuit can help victims recover damages including lost wages and loss of consortium or companionship, among others.
