Did you know that the Million Dollar Highway, a 25-mile stretch of road along the San Juan Mountains between Ouray and Silverton, Colorado, is also known as the Highway to Hell because it’s so dangerous? And that’s not the only stretch of highway in America that you want to be careful on.
You will want to stay safe and alert whenever driving around trucks since it can be life-threatening if you get into an accident with an 18-wheeler.
Unfortunately, you could end up dealing with dire truck accident injuries, some of which you would be stuck with for life. Keep reading to find out more about these injuries and their long-term effects.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Serious brain injuries could result due to blows to the head or even if there’s severe whiplash when the truck accident impact is strong. This kind of injury has a long-lasting impact on your lifestyle and longevity as it could potentially leave you disabled for life.
Some traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are:
Concussions: When something hits your head with a very high force, it can result in trauma to your brain tissue and skull fractures. This kind of injury can seem mild at first but could become dangerous if unchecked.
Hemorrhage: This is when bleeding occurs within your brain or skull tissue. This accumulating blood can put intense pressure upon your brain tissue, causing coma or even death, if not treated in time.
If your loved one has suffered from an impact to the head, then you will want to get them checked out by a doctor, even if they seem perfectly fine. You never want to take any risks with TBIs.
Amputations and Bone Fractures
There are two ways amputations can occur during a truck accident. It can be caused directly and instantaneously due to the impact when a limb gets severed. Or the individual may have sustained injuries to their limbs (like an infection or limited blood flow) that could result in amputation later on.
Either way, this is one of the most serious of truck accident injuries, since it will change the person’s life forever in an irrevocable fashion.
The individual could also suffer from bone fractures due to the force of the truck accident. Broken bones can occur in all areas of the body, particularly in the ankle, knee, ribs, and arms. You could even have multiple fractures after a serious truck accident.
Not only will the person with bone fractures require extensive surgery to fix the fractures, but also rehabilitation and physiotherapy for a long time after.
Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries can result in permanent paralysis, loss of mobility and function, and even death in certain cases, making them quite a serious affair.
These can happen if there’s a direct blow to the back during the accident, but also when fragments of bone break and lodge into the spine. Or even when the head and neck are forced sideways and there’s compression on the spine due to the impact.
Organ Damage
Most of us don’t think about all the organs that we house in our chest and abdominal cavity until they stop functioning normally. During a truck accident, there could be a severe blow to the midsection of your body. This could result in damage to the various organs present there.
In a lot of cases, this is due to the seat belt that is supposed to protect you during impact (and does do that), but ends up compressing your chest or abdomen resulting in trauma to the organs housed there.
You could end up needing an organ transplant if the damage is severe enough, or extensive surgery to fix whatever damage occurred.
Burns
Many trucks and 18-wheelers aren’t carrying benign items, but dangerous ones like hazardous chemicals, gasoline, and more. That’s why a collision with a truck is so much more dangerous than with another vehicle on the road.
When the accident occurs, this could result in the fuel or chemicals catching fire and in both vehicles catching fire, or even exploding. If you aren’t able to get out of your vehicle in time, if you are stuck or compressed by the impact, then you could have severe burn injuries.
There are several levels of burn injuries, but the most severe ones could require amputation or skin drafts. This could result in scars, functional impairments, and even death.
Whiplash Injuries
Anyone who gets into a truck accident will probably suffer from some kind of whiplash injury, even if mild. Whiplash is a neck injury or sprain caused by sudden deceleration during an accident. You might be zooming along at 80mph and suddenly, the impact causes you to decelerate to a standstill.
And you don’t even need to be traveling that fast to get whiplash. You can get it even if you are only traveling at 15mph. Some whiplash injuries, if mild enough don’t require much beyond bed rest.
But if it’s severe enough, you might end up needing surgery and extensive rehabilitation after.
Ear, Eye, Nose, and Jaw Injuries
Whenever you are in a truck accident, there might be flying debris due to impact and/or airbag deployment. Both of these cause injuries to the facial structure, including the eyes, ears, nose, and jaw.
You could even have permanent scarring on your face and disfigurement. This could result in psychological trauma that you suffer from for the rest of your life.
Get a Truck Accident Lawyer to Help With Truck Accident Injuries
Hopefully, you or your loved ones never have to deal with a fatal truck accident. Even if you are suffering from milder truck accident injuries, they can be severe enough to cause a lot of emotional distress, and both economic and non-economic damages to your life.
Contact Blake and Associates Law Firm if you have been in a truck accident in Augusta, GA, and get the counsel and compensation you deserve.
