Soft-Tissue Injuries In Car Accidents
Car accidents are traumatic events with lasting physical and emotional consequences for injury victims. Among the most common adverse outcomes of car accidents are soft-tissue injuries. With the exception of the skeletal system, most of the body is comprised of soft tissue; however, most injuries described as soft-tissue injuries involve muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves.
Car accidents can cause serious trauma to the body’s soft tissue, requiring an experienced Montana car accident lawyer from Beck, Amsden & Stalpes to obtain the maximum compensation available for injury-related losses.
Understanding Soft-Tissue Injuries In Montana Car Accidents
The Montana Department of Transportation warns that the crash force of an accident compromises the body’s support structures in a collision. According to crash force calculations, an average 140-pound person becomes a 6,300-pound force in an accident at only 45 miles per hour. A motorist’s body propels forward at the speed the car was traveling until the seatbelt snaps them back, causing the body’s soft tissue structures to stretch and overextend, often resulting in soft-tissue injuries. At the same time, blunt force trauma occurs from the car’s inward collapse at collision points, resulting in additional trauma to soft tissue.
What Types of Soft Tissue Injuries Happen In Montana Car Accidents?
While some soft tissue injuries like lacerations and abrasions show immediately, others often have delayed symptom presentation after an accident, revealing noticeable signs of trauma only after inflammation sets in hours or even days after an accident. The most common soft-tissue injuries in car accident claims include:
- Whiplash: caused by the overextension of the neck’s soft-tissue structures when the head whips back and forth during an accident
- Knee injuries, including torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and medial collateral ligament (MCL) tears
- Muscle strains: including those in the wrists, knees, ankles, and back
- Ligament sprains: torn or over-extended ligaments in knees, ankles, wrists, and elbows
- Contusions, or bruises
- Torn rotator cuffs in the shoulders
- Nerve injuries
- Bursitis or inflammation within the fluid-filled sacs cushioning the joints
- Lacerations and abrasions
Soft-tissue injuries are painful and temporarily debilitating during recovery time, limiting the injury victim’s range of motion and mobility. In some cases, soft-tissue injuries are permanent. For instance, when nerve cells are damaged, they do not regenerate. Soft-tissue injuries like deep lacerations can leave permanent scars. A 20-year study of whiplash victims revealed that headaches, arm pain, and shoulder pain persist in some whiplash victims as much as 20 years after their soft-tissue injury.
Recovering Damages for Soft-Tissue Injuries In Car Accidents
Soft-tissue injuries are often painful due to the presence of nerve fibers in the soft-tissue of the body and the importance of muscles, tendons, and ligaments supporting the body’s structure during movement. The physical and financial consequences of soft-tissue injuries are the damages in a Montana car accident claim. Common damages recovered include the following:
- Reimbursement for medical expenses
- Anticipated future medical expenses, including physical therapy costs
- Out-of-pocket costs, such as for mobility equipment and travel to see specialists
- Lost earnings
- Future income loss
- Reduced future earning ability
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Catastrophic injury compensation for permanent scarring, disfigurement, disability, or chronic pain
Compensation for soft-tissue injury damages typically comes from the at-fault party’s insurance company under Montana’s fault-based comparative negligence accident system.
How Can a Montana Car Accident Law Firm Help Me?
Proving the full extent of damages from soft-tissue injuries can be challenging, especially since many such injuries are not visible on X-rays or other medical imaging. In many cases, a car accident victim doesn’t immediately see a doctor after suffering a soft-tissue injury like a strain, sprain, or whiplash because symptoms only appear hours or days later, adding to the legal challenge of proving that the injury occurred in the car accident.
Instead of taking on the claim process alone against an insurer that is not on your side, contact Beck, Amsden & Stalpes for experienced representation and prompt action on your car accident claim.