Car accidents are frightening, traumatic experiences even when they cause only mild, fully recoverable injuries. When a car accident results in serious injuries with lifelong adverse consequences, it’s physically, emotionally, and financially devastating. A spinal cord injury is one of the most life-altering permanent injuries a car accident victim can survive, impacting all aspects of their life.
Understanding how a car accident causes serious spinal cord injuries is the first step in moving forward after the accident, especially when another driver’s negligence caused the crash. Reach out to our Chicago spinal cord injury attorney for a free consultation.
According to a medical research study based on CDC data, car accidents caused about 38% of the nation’s spinal cord injuries in a single recent year. The crash force of a car accident places tremendous stress on the body’s support system of muscles, connective tissue, and bones, including the protective vertebrae surrounding the spinal cord.
According to crash force calculations, a 120-pound motorist becomes a 4,200-pound force in an accident at only 35 miles per hour. At 75 miles per hour, this force increases to 9,000 pounds. A collision propels the motorist’s body forward at the speed the car was traveling before the seatbelt snaps them back against the seat. This powerful back-and-forth motion overextends the muscles, tendons, and vertebrae in the spinal column, sometimes resulting in severe trauma to the spine and spinal cord.
Crash force isn’t the only danger to the spinal column in a car accident. Tremendous vertical or horizontal pressure or crushing as the structure of the car collapses inward during a car accident can crush a motorist’s skeletal support system, resulting in bone shards penetrating into the spinal cord.
An extreme side-to-side motion in a collision can also cause damage to the spinal cord as the powerful rotational forces cause vertebrae to move forcefully out of place, sometimes shearing the spinal cord.
Less commonly, the spinal cord may experience trauma from a direct, penetrating injury caused by sharp metal or glass puncturing the accident victim’s spinal column during the crash and cutting, shearing, or otherwise damaging the nerves in the spinal cord.
The nerve bundles in the spinal cord send and receive messages between the body and brain. When a serious injury damages or shears the spinal cord, the messages cannot pass through the damaged section of the spinal column. The extent and severity of paralysis depend on the level of the injury in the spinal column and whether the spinal cord has been damaged, completely destroyed, or sheared at the injury level.
A spinal cord injury at the lowest vertebral level in the lumbar spine may allow some movement of the lower limbs, sensation, bladder and bowel control, and sexual function, while a spinal cord injury of the cervical spine in the neck causes total paralysis of the upper and lower body (quadriplegia or tetraplegia). A spinal cord injury of the mid to lower level of the spinal column results in paralysis of the lower limbs or hips and limbs (paraplegia).
Spinal cord injuries are among the most debilitating car accident injuries, with lifelong physical, emotional, and financial damages. According to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the lifelong cost of a spinal cord injury ranges from $1.1 million to over $4.7 million per person, depending on the extent of the injury.
An experienced car accident lawyer in Chicago seeks the full policy limits in a spinal cord injury claim and often finds additional avenues for compensation due to the high lifelong costs of a spinal cord injury.
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